Compass 



FRANKLIN HAMILTON 





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LODESTAR AND 
COMPASS 



AN ADVENTURE OF THE IMMORTAL 
PART OF US 

^ . JEdited by 

FRANKLIN HAMILTON 



So we are here setting up on this hill as npon a high pedestal once 
more the compass of human life with its great needle pointing steadily 
at the lodestar of the human spirit. Let men who wish to know come and 
look upon this compass and thereafter determine wh ich way they wiU go! 
— President IVoodrouiiVilsonatthe Openingof the American Vnitxraity. 




THE ABINGDON PRESS 

NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



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Copyright, 1915, by 
THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 



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JUN -0 ISiS 

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CONTENTS 



PAOB 

Preface 7 

Invocation 16 

The Right Reverend Alfred Harding, Bishop of 
Washington. 

Without Haste, Without Rest 19 

Bishop Earl Cranston. 

A New Chapter in the Biography of the American 

Scholar 24 

Bishop William Fraser McDowell. 

Lodestar and Compass 36 

His Excellency, Woodrow Wilson, President of the 
United States. 

The New Learning for the New Day 43 

Bishop John William Hamilton. 

Pro Deo et Patria 68 

Address Introductory to Raising the American Flag. 
The Honorable Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the 
Navy. 

" But I Know a Name, a Name, a Name! " 81 

The Honorable William Jennings Bryan, Secretary 
of State. 

Life-Girding 95 

Franklin Hamilton, Chancellor of the American 
University. 

Working Plan for the American University 132 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Opening Day — PREsroENT Wilson Speaking . . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

College of History, The American IlNiVERsrry 19 

McKinley College of Government, The American 

University 36 

Speakers at the Opening of The American Uni- 
versity 43 

Sofa of Abraham Lincoln; Civil War Desk of 

Secretary Stanton 55 

Secretary Daniels Speaking 68 

Secretary Bryan Speaking 81 

Table and Chairs of Senator Charles Sumner; 

Historic Chair 87 

Francis Asburt 95 

Washington Letter 113 

Old Fort Gaines; View from Fort Gaines 132 



PKEFACE 

AS President of the Board of Education of 
^the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the 
opening of the American University, Bishop 
McDowell made a formal statement of the 
proposed policy of the new institution. In an 
address of rare lucidity and strength the 
bishop commented on the plans that were in- 
herent in the enterprise. One of the high 
ideals and noble purposes of this notable ex- 
periment in higher education, he declared, 
would be ^^the making of a literature which, 
in ample and steady stream, shall refresh the 
life of the republic and the world.'' Of such 
making of books this publication is the first 
fruit. 

Concerning those children of the brain for 
which they stand sponsor, publicists are as- 
sumed to be diffident. Is it shamelessness here 
to confess that diffidence concerning this par- 
ticular "adventure of the immortal part of 
us" comes not so easily to heel? Where mis- 
takes appear the editor perforce stands con- 

7 



8 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

victed. But here is wide sweep of thought. 
In utterances for which the editor is not re- 
sponsible, the far, almost prophetic, range of 
spirit which the compass needle reveals dis- 
misses any fear of reproach for this particular 
book. Through the pages which follow more 
than once there will be seen gleams of the lode- 
star of the human spirit that will cheer and 
refresh many voyagers. If over some way- 
farers clouds have gathered, or, at dubious 
ways in spirit pilgrimage, other travelers have 
not been able to determine which way to go, 
here, perhaps, may be found a helpful chart. 

To make clear what is involved in this first 
book venture of the American University it 
will suffice to repeat a statement concerning 
the opening of the university which at the time 
received wide dissemination through the public 
prints. That statement herewith follows : 

President Wilson Opens the American University 

May 27, 1914, forever will be the historic day of the 
American University. The plans of Chancellor Hamil- 
ton for opening the University already had received the 
unanimous approval of the Board of Education, the 
College Presidents* Association, and the University 
Senate. Not a few of the foremost educators in the 
land to whom these plans had been submitted for 
counsel and help had given their unqualified indorse- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 9 

ment. There now only remained to inaugurate the 
plans for actual application and development. This 
last has been done in a public function which will re- 
main memorable in the minds of those who were privi- 
leged to be present. The occasion, moreover, promises 
to have no small significance in the new trend of modern 
Christian training. 

Every auspice was favorable. A cloudless day had 
wrapped in beauty the noble westward slope whereon 
lies the great university campus. On one side below 
was the national capital, its snowy buildings framed 
with green. Around the foot of the slope toward the 
south and east rolled the Potomac in a picturesque 
sweep toward the sea. The distant vista was of blue 
stretching mountains. To this spot it was that on 
May 27, in the afternoon, came President Wilson to 
lend his own personal interest as an educator and his 
official recognition as head of the nation to the university 
whose true natal day it was. 

It was to be an open-air assembly. Long before the 
hour set for the formal exercises the people had been 
gathering. Automobiles had been rolling out over 
Massachusetts Avenue boulevard. The new electric 
railroad which had been completed for this special day 
had brought visitors in a steady stream. For a half 
hour, while the seats were being occupied, the Marine 
Band, sent by the Navy Department, gave a concert. 
Twenty of the leading clergymen of Washington, rep- 
resenting all denominations, under the leadership of 
Dr. William A. Haggerty, as chief marshal, looked after 
the ticket bearers. Soon all seats were exhausted. 
When Bishop Cranston, as presiding officer of the day, 
arose to call the assembly to order and to introduce 
Bishop Harding, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Wash- 
ington, to make the invocation, there was a vast ex- 



10 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

pectant throng centered around the speakers' platform 
and on the lawns between the university buildings. 

Bishop McDowell probably never spoke with more in- 
tellectual vigor and reach than now as with characteristic 
eloquence he voiced the hopes and purposes of the many 
workers who had contributed to this hour. For among 
these workers he had had no inconspicuous place. Wash- 
ington people especially were grateful for his help and 
presence. With striking apothegm, keen analysis, and 
sympathetic vision of the new adventure, his classic 
utterances served as a keynote for all that followed. 

The national anthem now fittingly introduced the 
President of the United States. President Wilson also 
was in congenial atmosphere. His was an unaffected 
personal interest. Sympathetically he expressed the 
high significance of the occasion and of the undertaking. 
Then with impressive utterance the Chief Magistrate 
formally declared the university open for the work to 
which its founders had dedicated it. The emphasis 
which he placed on vision lifted the occasion to lofty 
heights of spiritual significance. It is questionable 
whether the President ever condensed into so brief a 
compass thought that was at once rich, inspirational, 
and practical in its application. 

It was wholly fitting that the next speaker, Bishop 
Hamilton, should have a leading part on the program. 
He could not but make an address of rare persuasive- 
ness and vision. For had he not contributed the first 
dollar to the enterprise? He was the lifelong friend of 
Bishop Hurst, the founder. Bishop Hamilton now is 
endowing two lectureships for the university. He spoke 
out of a sincere love for the enterprise and gave a 
graphic word picture of the effort of the university to 
adapt itself to the modern trend of thought in education 
and life training. 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 11 

A thrilling incident that followed was the flag raising, 
which was in charge of the Secretary of the Navy, the 
Honorable Josephus Daniels. The embodiment of pa- 
triotism, gathering inspiration from the present outlook 
in national affairs, this popular son of North Carolina 
made a moving address on the university motto, "Pro 
Deo et Patria" — For God and Country. Then at the 
word of the speaker a great naval ensign, which together 
with a lofty mast, had been presented by Mr. John B. 
Hammond and friends, was flung out above the univer- 
sity grounds and buildings. The band took up the strain 
of the "Star Spangled Banner," while the people, spring- 
ing to their feet, sang, under the contagious leadership 
of Mr. Percy S. Foster, the immortal lines of Francis 
Scott Key. 

No better setting could have been found to rouse 
William Jennings Bryan to one of those inimitable 
utterances which have given the Secretary of State a 
place unique in present-day affairs. Mr. Bryan was at 
his best. A member of the Board of Trustees of the 
university and of its Board of Award, the secretary felt 
at home. His gracious words cheered every heart. A 
cool breeze, which began to blow over the campus while 
Mr. Bryan spoke, seemed to catch its refreshing and 
stimulating vigor from his own spirit. 

In the absence of Bishop Alpheus W. Wilson, Senior 
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Rev. 
Dr. F. J. Prettyman, chaplain of the United States 
Senate, pronounced the benediction. And the American 
University had commenced its academic functions as the 
youngest in the mighty fellowship of American institu- 
tions of learning. 

At a meeting of the trustees preceding the opening 
exercises the report of Chancellor Hamilton was pre- 
sented and showed a steady gathering of money, friends, 



12 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

and important forces to the help of the university. 
Stated concisely, the new plans for the university are as 
follows: First, fellowships for graduate study; second, 
a director of research work for the service of students 
wishing to avail themselves of the resources of Washing- 
ton; third, lectureships in Washington on important 
matters; fourth, lectureships at educational centers else- 
where under the auspices of the American University; 
fifth, the publication of significant volumes of lectures 
and theses. 

Dr. John W. Hancher, a member of the Board of 
Award, read to the assembly a paper ordered by the 
trustees at the morning session, voicing their apprecia- 
tion and approval of the seven years administration of 
Chancellor Hamilton, and pledging him their co- 
operation and support for the future in terms and 
phraseology so commendatory and so confident, as to 
command his gratitude and to prompt his best endeavor 
for years to come. 



The opening of the American University, 
as described in the foregoing words, challenged 
attention. The utterances of the speakers on 
that occasion attracted comment that uni- 
versally was favorable. Everywhere it seemed 
to be felt that, as President Wilson so felicit- 
ously had phrased it, an adventure of the 
immortal part of us had been undertaken 
which could be made of vast service to human- 
ity. The spirit and contents of the addresses 
themselves evoked interest in widely sundered 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 13 

lands. Many requests for copies of the 
speeches were received. It was decided to 
publish the addresses. All who were con- 
cerned gave their permission. For this kind- 
ness we record our appreciation and gratitude. 
Especially do we desire to thank President 
Woodrow Wilson. In the midst of most try- 
ing circumstances, under conditions of unu- 
sual strain upon him, with generous willing- 
ness he gave of his time and strength to serve 
us. The words which, out of the sincerity of 
his heart, he uttered were noble and inspiring. 
They are worthy of a permanent place in the 
literature of Christian education. 

To all others who shared in the ceremonies 
of the opening day we express the feeling of 
multitudes of friends of the American Uni- 
versity when we say that theirs was an act of 
faithful loyalty to the hopes and efforts which 
had gone before. It was a meed of service for 
which gratitude long will abide. Already it 
has helped to give countenance to an enter- 
prise which confessedly is not conventional 
and which aims distinctively to partake of 
pioneer endeavor. Each address here pub- 
lished in some unusual, unique way supple- 
ments all the others. Together they form a 



14 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

body of instructional and inspiriting truth 
the influence of which will widen and deepen 
through the years. For we have come to a 
new day in matters of the mind and of the 
spirit. Men and women no longer hesitate to 
depart from the beaten track to follow the 
gleam. New light is breaking on many paths. 

For the paper on Life-Girding, which here 
is reprinted, only one excuse can be offered. 
It is that, for any satisfactory statement of 
life and purpose in behalf of the American 
University, there would be needed the incor- 
poration into it of this particular study in 
intellectual and spiritual motives. The work- 
ing plan of the university which follows is a 
natural corollary. 

In conclusion we shall not crave the favor- 
able consideration of "the gentle reader.'' We 
have faith that the interest which these pages 
will awaken may be trusted to do that. We 
do not feel moved particularly to thank the 
many editors who already have given kindly 
notice to the addresses here brought together. 
These molders of opinion have disarmed us of 
this recourse of courtesy for they have proved 
that they feel a partnership in the adventure 
to which we have been called to dedicate our- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 15 

selves. To the friends who out of their finan- 
cial store, and that ofttimes too slender, have 
met faith by gift — even to them it is not now 
in our heart to join in unusual ascriptions of 
praise, though for all such help the remem- 
brance is lasting and precious. No. In mak- 
ing this first contribution of the American 
University to that ample and steady stream 
which, under Providence, is to refresh the life 
of the republic and the world, we cherish only 
the hope that the university itself may be 
lifted up to fulfill that prophetic word con- 
cerning it — ^'Nothing else, I venture to think, 
so daring or so wise has been proposed by any 
American church." If, thus far, we have pros- 
pered and have justified the offerings and the 
unforgetting memory of friendship and of 
prayer, to Him be it ascribed — Laus Domino. 



PRAYER 

Bishop Alfred Harding, Protestant 
Episcopal Bishop of Washington 

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, 
xY. giver of every good and perfect gift, we 
invoke thy blessing on the exercises of this 
day, and upon this "new sowing for the Master 
and for man," the American University, whose 
doors are now opening. 

We bless thy Holy Name that thou didst put 
it into the hearts of thy servants who inaugu- 
rated this enterprse to establish here, in the 
capital of the nation, an institution to be de- 
voted to the advancement of learning and to 
the promotion of the religion of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. We thank thee, O Lord, 
for thy blessing on the labors and thy answer 
to the prayers of those who for a score of years 
have labored and prayed for the consumma- 
tion of this day. 

Be graciously pleased to indue with heav- 
enly wisdom those to whom is intrusted the 
direction of this university. Guide them in 

16 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 17 

their policies, that the work may grow and 
prosper, and that the courses of studies to be 
pursued may be of such value as to place this 
university in the forefront of the institutions 
of learning in the world. Give to those who 
shall be chosen to teach the guidance of thy 
Holy Spirit, and to those who come to learn 
such diligence and devotion as will result in 
sending forth men well equipped for their life- 
work, consecrated by the Holy Ghost, and 
filled with the spirit of true patriotism, bring- 
ing to the service of church and common- 
wealth trained and disciplined minds, and a 
willingness to give themselves to the uttermost 
for the good of the nation and the well being 
of their fellows. 

We ask thy blessing in all things upon the 
President of the United States and the mem- 
bers of his cabinet and the Congress, beseech- 
ing thee that all their deliberations and all 
their acts and decisions may be for the safety, 
honor, and welfare of thy people, and the bene- 
fit of our most holy faith and true religion. 

Grant, O Lord, that the founders, benefac- 
tors, and all those who, to the furtherance of 
the work of this university faithfully offer to 
thee of their prayers, their labors and their 



18 LODESTAK AND COMPASS 

substance, may come, together with all thy 
saints, to those unspeakable joys which thou 
hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love 
thee. 

Prosper thou the work of our hands upon 
us : prosper thou our handiwork. 

We ask all these blessings and mercies in 
the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ who has taught us to pray. ( The audi- 
ence joined Bishop Harding in the Lord^s 
Prayer. ) 




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WITHOUT HASTE, WITHOUT REST 

Bishop Earl Cranston 

AS an organization the American University 
^ had its inception in 1891. It was char- 
tered by act of Congress in 1893, twenty-one 
years ago. Being of full age this corporation 
to-day takes its place among the teaching insti- 
tutions of the nation and of the world and 
enters upon its life work. Back of every new 
enterprise there must be a constructive and 
determining mind. This institution was con- 
ceived and projected upon the consciousness 
and into the plans of the church of which he 
was a bishop by the Rev. John Fletcher Hurst, 
D.D., LL.D. By him this broad site was pur- 
chased in 1890, and held until the corporation 
was formed. Measuring his faith by his cour- 
age, in that transaction we perceive the spirit- 
ual quality of the foundation upon which 
the university was established. God loves a 
brave, true man who, once assured of the auto- 
graph affixed to his orders, dares to the utter- 
most venture of life or reputation. There are 

19 



20 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

crises in the march of souls and in the ful- 
filling of trusts, Mr. President, when it is 
braver to stand still with all the enginery of 
action tensely throbbing against the restrain- 
ing Avill than it is to advance. In such a stress 
God helps his man to stand firm, and God's 
people know the quality of that type of hero- 
ism. But Bishop Hurst's call was to action 
until his strength gave away and he was sum- 
moned to his rest. He had done his part. It 
was to his successors in commission and to his 
surviving associates in the great undertaking 
that there came that period of brave inaction 
which tries loyalty and beats down zeal until 
patience may prove itself the greater virtue. 
Even Bishop McCabe, who succeeded Bishop 
Hurst as the leader of the movement, and 
whose genius rioted in opportunity when 
dollars were needed for God's work, balked in 
his efforts to give new momentum to the enter- 
prise and add to its list of active friends. 
Meanwhile the public was left to wonder if at 
last the Methodists had found a task too big 
for them. 

Bishop Hurst's first call was for f 10,000,000. 
To a church that has expended approximately 
,000,000 annually in its multiplied activi- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 21 

ties that sum was not a staggering demand in 
itself. But there were other church colleges 
already upon the hearts of our people, and in 
their life and administration colleges are hu- 
man things. They do not welcome rivals or 
more pretentious candidates for the favor of 
their natural supporters. The last twenty 
years have been wonderful years in church 
expenditure. Besides the gathering of en- 
dowments for growing church universities we 
have had an era of church building. The peo- 
ple have taxed themselves heavily for new and 
costly temples. Under these conditions the 
American University has had to bide its time. 
Meanwhile all our important institutions of 
learning have been rapidly advancing their 
standards and the problem of the American 
University has been one of shifting factors. 
Some of Bishop Hurst's plans have been modi- 
fied in the light of later educational develop- 
ments. But the original purpose to create 
here at the national capital a commanding 
center of advanced teaching which shall be at 
once reverently Christian and fearlessly pro- 
gressive has never for one moment been aban- 
doned. 

We have now come to the beginning only of 



22 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

the realization of that purpose. Let not the 
impressive program of this hour mislead any 
one. We are going about our Master's work 
in a very modest way. To-day's program is 
prophetic rather than monumental. The pres- 
ence of these distinguished churchmen and 
statesmen not only indicates their apprecia- 
tion of the importance of the kind of service 
which is promised by this foundation, but sug- 
gests also that in the training of the typical 
American both the church and the state have 
a legitimate part, and that loyalty to God and 
his church and loyalty to the national govern- 
ment so far from being incompatible virtues, 
are indissolubly united in the best conception 
of American citizenship. 

We are cheered by the presence to-day of so 
many of our faithful friends. We miss the 
visible presence of the long honored President 
of our Board of Trustees, Dr. David H. 
Carroll, by whose generous bequest this 
opening day was hastened, and we lament the 
illness which confines Dr. Carroll's successor, 
the Hon. Aldis B. Browne, to his home, while 
his heart is here with us. But with God's 
glorious sky above us, and the thrill of his 
approving voice making jubilant our spirits, 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 23 

we are ready to consecrate to the perpetual 
service of God and the world for time and for 
eternity, for men and for women who would 
seek truth at its purest fountain and life at 
its only source, the American University — 
chartered by the American Congress and 
pillared upon the one corner stone that can 
support a holy church and a righteous and 
abiding state — Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
the Saviour of Men, the Light of the World. 

Among those by whose counsel the univer- 
sity has been brought to its present plan of 
going forward Avith its great work to which it 
is committed — prominently among those who 
have been foremost in this work — is Bishop 
William Fraser McDowell, whose counsel to 
us has been invaluable, and whose presence 
here to-day certifies the profound interest of 
one who has been an educator in our church, 
and an administrator of our educational 
affairs, in the office of the Secretary of the 
Board of Education, and who later has admin- 
istered the highest office of the church. Bishop 
William Fraser McDowell, whom I have the 
pleasure of presenting to you at this moment. 



A NEW OHAPTEE IN THE BIOGRAPHY 
OF THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR 

Bishop William Eraser McDowell^ Presi- 
dent OF the Board of Education of 
the Methodist Episcopal 
Church 

IT is many years since Mr. Emerson, at Har- 
vard, on the banks of the Charles, spoke 
of the American scholar. Harvard College 
and the republic itself were both young on 
that long-gone August day. This event of 
ours is related to that. Both terms in the old 
subject have changed, both have become larger 
and richer in their content, but here on the 
banks of the Potomac, as yonder on the 
Charles, we still have to do with the Amer- 
ican scholar; we are still planning to "write 
a new chapter in his biography." We count 
ourselves happy that we can thus relate our- 
selves to all the high ideals and noble purposes 
of all our past. We especially rejoice that 
our happy and auspicious festival, the inau- 
guration of our new educational experiment, 

24 



LODESTAK AND COMPASS 25 

is honored by the presence of the President of 
the republic, who embodies and illustrates in 
his own culture, his character and consecra- 
tion to public service, the finest traditions, the 
fairest example and the holiest uses of scholar- 
ship. 

We are formally inaugurating to-day a not- 
able experiment in higher education. Noth- 
ing else quite like this has been planned or 
tried on our soil. We propose at least four 
unique, distinct lines : 

1. The opening of the rich and varied mate- 
rials of education and research, afforded by 
the government, to the students of the Avorld, 
under competent direction and guidance. 

2. By a carefully devised system of scholar- 
ships and fellowships, the opening of the grad- 
uate instruction of the world to our select 
young men and women. 

3. The creation of a body of scholars, gath- 
ered from everywhere, sent everywhere, united 
here as Fellows, recognized and pledged to 
humanity's service and the larger uses of the 
largest learning. 

4. The creation of lectureships for Wash- 
ington and elsewhere and the making of a lit- 
erature which shall in ample and steady 



26 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

stream refresh the life of the republic and the 
world. 

This is the simple outline of our large pur- 
pose. It would be easy to grow prophetic and 
to foresee the day not far off when there shall 
be a thousand scholars, gathered out of all the 
land, bearing the advanced degTees of the 
world's universities and bound together as 
Fellows of the American University. Nothing 
else, I venture to think, so daring or so wise 
has been proposed by any American church. 
Happy the body that can hold fast to tradi- 
tions ; happy the body that can also make tradi- 
tions. This movement has due regard to those 
English ideals in which our early roots were 
struck, and those later German influences now 
so profoundly affecting our entire educational 
life. It remains true to both streams and sets 
a new and living stream floAving in the world. 
It has always been believed, for example, that 
an institution must have a vast equipment in 
the way of buildings and grounds, and a 
strong teaching body of eminent scholars, or 
it could not be a university. Our institutions 
have had to be visualized, or they could not 
get money either from private benefactors or 
public treasuries. Brick and stone have been 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 27 

thought imperative both for attracting dollars 
and drawing students. Well, if to-day you 
ask to see the American University, I ask you 
to look beyond what is visible here, to the uni- 
versities of the old world and the new, to every 
place where a foremost scholar dwells and 
teaches, to every laboratory and library hold- 
ing truth for the eager student. The American 
University exalts in its plans not the local but 
the universal, not the provincial but the cos- 
mopolitan, not the visible but the invisible. 
And to him who has the eyes of his mind and 
heart opened this high mount presents the ris- 
ing vision of open doors in Berlin and Leipsic, 
Oxford and Paris, Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
Cambridge and New Haven, Columbia and 
Princeton, Chicago and Wisconsin, and a 
great host beside. And through this fair gate- 
way opened this hour streams of youth are 
starting to these open doors in all the learned 
world, and hither soon they will be returning, 
and the outgoers with hearts all eager will 
meet the incomers with their hands full and 
the light of purpose on their brows. 

And never before, it seems to me, has there 
been quite such an application of the democ- 
racy and the cosmopolitanism of advanced 



28 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

learning. Yonder at the top of the world 
sleeps England's foremost dreamer, Cecil 
Rhodes, who opened the universities of Eng- 
land to the youth of America. No finer plan 
had ever been devised to make acquaintances 
and friends of the youth who pretty soon will 
lead the English-speaking peoples. Already 
that plan makes mightily for the world's peace 
and will make for it still more mightily in days 
to come. And this in even larger measure will 
serve like purpose. "Saxon, Norman, Dane 
are we," says England's poet. Saxon, Nor- 
man, Dane, and everything besides are we. 
And that final federation of the world toward 
which the whole creation moves, will come not 
at the point of bayonet or mouth of cannon, 
but at the hands of the clear thinkers, the 
world-trained scholars, the brotherhood of 
learning, the people — men and women who 
study together in youth and in manhood, and 
serve together for the common good. 

The words have dropped out earlier than I 
thought they would — the common good. The 
common good is before our eyes this after- 
noon, the common good not as interpreted for 
Methodism or for America; but the common 
good as interpreted for humanity. Goldwin 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 29 

Smith's seat at Cornell contains the words: 
"Above all nations is humanity." We shall 
be smart enough in America and I think we 
shall be rich enough, but if we ever break it 
will be because we set our hearts on learning 
and wealth and all that belongs to them, for 
their own sake, and for our own sake, instead 
of consecrating ourselves to the common good, 
interpreted in world terms. Maybe this is not 
what I was expected to say, but I am not 
thinking chiefly of the American University 
as opening a new gate of educational priv- 
ilege for American youth. I am thinking 
of it chiefly as opening a new chapter of serv- 
ice for the American scholar, whose biog- 
raphy we are always writing. We shall open 
up and apply new and wonderful resources? 
We shall push back the boundaries of the 
unknown? We shall not be content simply 
to learn what is already known? We shall 
make lectures and theses and monographs? 
We shall open the wealth of the world for 
our eager and aspiring youth? All that surely 
and proudly and gratefully. But our serv- 
ices will not be final and perfect until we 
have opened new resources of life to those 
whose lives are barren; or until we have 



30 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

pushed back the boundaries of the unendur- 
able. We shall defend the truth with many a 
brave blow, but the scholar will strike his brav- 
est blows for humanity. The wealth of the 
world open for eager youth, the need of the 
world open for the touch of the trained youth. 

Round the cape of a sudden came the sea, 
And the sun looked over the mountain's rim, 
And straight was a path of gold for him 

And the need of a world of men for me. 

Path of gold opens for those we send to 
Berlin and Paris and the rest; need of the 
world of men for those whose faces turn this 
way after Berlin. Wealth easily becomes sel- 
fish, culture just as easily becomes selfish and 
betrays itself in so doing — and both must be 
saved by service. 

Every year I pass through a noble campus 
gateway bearing this inscription : "So enter 
that daily thou mayest become more thought- 
ful and more learned. So depart that daily 
thou mayst become more useful to thy country 
and to mankind.'' That is our thought in all 
our plans. 

There have been many theories of education 
since Aristotle, who believed in education as 
a training for good Greek citizenship. Many 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 31 

have thought of it chiefly for its ecclesiastical 
uses. In our time there is rather undue em- 
phasis upon the demand for practical results. 
Philosophy is being compelled both to bake 
and butter the modern man's bread. One of 
Mr. Howells's best known characters thought 
all education was to train a man to exploit the 
community for his own benefit. Nations have 
sometimes had such ideals. In the face of this 
intensely practical demand, one has an in- 
creasing regard for those blessed old human- 
ists who did not have the fear of a dollar before 
their eyes, but just loved sweetness and light 
because they w^ere sweetness and light. Many 
of us w^ere brought up on the theory that the 
end of higher education was character, but the 
modern world has learned a better word and 
enlarged the meaning of all these noble terms 
by putting that better word into them. That 
better word, now on scholars' lips, is service 
and its example and interpreter is that one 
world-citizen, head of the church, supreme 
Teacher of mankind who came "not to be min- 
istered unto but to minister.'' 

Modern education has become very expen- 
sive, but it has also become very necessary. 
The world's machinery has become very com- 



32 LODESTAE AND COMPASS 

plicated. The world's engineers must be very 
competent. The people become increasingly 
omnipotent. Their leaders must be ever more 
capable. Learning is to be pressed into the 
last fold of our life. Truth is not for the few 
but for the many. Therefore our interest is 
not in these highly privileged Fellows of the 
American University to whom gates shall be 
opened, but in that universal humanity whom 
these Fellows will help to lead out of ignor- 
ance. Our final concern is not the higher edu- 
cation of the few but the highest possible edu- 
cation of the many. It is not easy to keep 
wealth democratic. Heaven save the world 
from a scholarship that is not democratic. 
Selfish and snobbish learning is intolerable. 
Wealth will be asked for this as for other edu- 
cational movements. Wealth ought to be so 
asked for or given without the asking. One 
wishes that the day might come that Professor 
Mahalfy described when he was here and when 
the first great gifts were being made and he 
wrote that in America "The rich men are going 
about like roaring lions seeking what they may 
endow." What shall be asked of the Uni- 
versity in return? Here again we must go 
back to one of our oldest universities for an- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 33 

swer. When, in young manhood, Charles W. 
Eliot was becoming president of Harvard he 
said: "The University will make to the com- 
munity rich return of learning, of poetry, of 
piety, and of that fine sense of civic duty with- 
out which republics are impossible." 

Pasteur defined democracy in these words: 
"Democracy is that order in the state which 
permits each individual to put forth his ut- 
most effort." But you feel the incomplete- 
ness of that. The period came before the sen- 
tence was finished. This utmost effort must 
be like Abraham's election — you understand 
that Abraham was a candidate for a long time 
— that the nations of the earth may be blessed. 
This American University thus takes upon 
itself an immense responsibility in the very 
name it bears. For it is to help make that new 
American who shall help to make that new 
America, which shall help that new world 
which is the goal of history. It will take the 
provincial and make him a cosmopolitan even 
while it deepens his patriotism. Seated here 
at the capital it will act as a unifying force 
for a world group, making for peace and right- 
eousness with all men of light and leading 
and goodwill. Goldwin Smith declared that 



34 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

^^democracy is not yet large minded." If not, 
it must be made so. For the whole world needs 
a large-minded America. I shall not soon for- 
get a night in Calcutta when several hundred 
native Indian students gathered about me 
after an address and asked me to speak again. 
One of them spoke for all, saying: ^'Tell us 
about George Washington and Abraham Lin- 
coln." To hear these names thus spoken in 
the heart of that Eastern w^orld gave me a 
new, keen sense of America's place in the 
world. And that sense of our Avorld place is 
upon me to-day as I speak these opening words 
for this vast venture into the higher life. We 
cannot make the world American, nor English, 
nor German. We cannot make it republican in 
form. The Master of our souls did not direct 
us to go into all the world and teach the Eng- 
lish language to every creature. We cannot 
even whip the whole world, though some seem 
to think we can, and ought. But we can unite 
with the men and nations who keep the lamp of 
truth aflame, and the love of men alive, to 
reach the world : to train it in truth and peace, 
sympathy and righteousness; to lead it in 
paths of brotherhood ; to break down the caste 
spirit everywhere. ^'The youth of a nation are 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 35 

the trustees of posterity," and the American 
University solemnly pledges itself to perform 
its tasks in such spirit that the trustees of pos- 
terity shall nobly fulfill their holy trust for 
humanity's sake. We look for the time 

When light shall spread and man be like man 
Through all the seasons of the Golden year; 

when the whole round world shall 

Be bound in every way 

By gold chains about the feet of God. 

And upon this vast endeavor the Methodist 
Church asks the favor of men and the blessing 
of Almighty God. 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 37 

My career in that respect was as adventur- 
ous as it has been in some other respects. I 
was cheered in that field, as I have been 
cheered in another, by the contests of prin- 
ciple. I suppose it is in my blood always to be 
in some kind of a fight. And I do not know 
of any fight which is more heartening than 
fighting for the ideals of scholarship. 

I have never pretended, of course, that in a 
college you could make a scholar in four years. 
A Yale friend of mine said that after teach- 
ing for twenty years he had come to the con- 
clusion that the human mind possessed infinite 
resources for resisting the introduction of 
knowledge; and it takes considerably more 
than four years to break down the defenses 
and begin the high enterprise of scholarship. 
But I have at least fought to have the oppor- 
tunity to begin it and to awaken the mind to 
the seriousness of the undertaking. 

Scholarship is the mastery, the exact mas- 
tery and comprehension of great bodies of 
knowledge; and the comprehension is more 
difficult than the mastery. It is much easier 
to know than it is to understand. It is much 
easier to acquire than it is to interpret. And 
yet all knowledge is dead which is not inter- 



38 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

preted. The vision of the scholar is worth 
more to the world than his industry. 

It is appropriate that a university should be 
set upon a hill. It must be a place of outlook, 
and there must be eyes in it that can compre- 
hend the things that are seen, even the things 
distant and vague upon the horizon. For the 
object of scholarship is not to please the 
scholar, is not to amuse the leisure of inquis- 
itive minds, but to be put forth, to release the 
human spirit from every kind of thralldom, 
particularly from the thralldom of darkness, 
from the thralldom of not knowing the path 
and not being able to see the way as it treads 
it. It is knowledge properly interpreted, seen 
with a vision of insight, that is uniting the 
spirits of the world. Charles Lamb made a 
remark once which seems to me to go pretty 
deep as a human remark. He was speaking 
very ill of some man not present in the little 
company in which he was talking, and one 
of his friends said, ^Why, Charles, I didn't 
know that you knew him.'' He said, "I-I-I 
don't; I-I can't h-hate a man I-I-I know." 
How profound and how human that is ! There 
are races whom we despise, and it generally 
turns out that we despise them because we do 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 39 

not know them. We have not found the com- 
mon footing of humanity with which to touch 
them and deal with them. I have sometimes, 
when sitting in the company of particularly 
ably dressed people who were interested in 
philanthropy, wondered whether they knew 
how to be philanthropic. Philanthropy does 
not consist in giving your money to pay for 
what somebody else will do for mankind. It 
consists, at the fountain head, of putting your- 
self on the same level of life and comprehen- 
sion with the persons whom you wish to help 
and letting your heart beat in tune with their 
heart so that you will understand. 

The object of scholarship, the object of all 
knowledge, whether you call it by the large 
name of scholarship or not, is to understand, 
is to comprehend, is to know what the need 
of mankind is and to find that need in your- 
self, so that you can interpret it without go- 
ing to the books — merely by looking in your 
own heart and listening to your own under- 
standing. That is the reason, ladies and 
gentlemen, why scholarship has usually been 
most fruitful when associated with religion; 
and scholarship has never, so far as I can at 
this moment recollect, been associated with 



40 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

any religion except the religion of Jesus 
Christ. The religion of humanity and the 
comprehension of humanity are of the same 
breed and kind; they go together. It is very 
proper, therefore, that under Christian au- 
spices a great adventure of the mind, a great 
enterprise of the spirit, should be entered 
upon. 

There is no particular propriety in my being 
present to open a university merely because 
I am President of the United States. Nobody 
is president of any part of the human mind. 
The mind is free. It owes subservience and 
allegiance to nobody under God. The only 
thing that one can do in opening a university 
is to say we wish to add one more means of 
emancipating the human mind, emancipating 
it from fear, from misunderstanding — eman- 
cipating it from the dark and leading it into 
the light. 

I hope there may be lecturers in this uni- 
versity who can interpret life. I have not met 
many, but I hope you will catch some of them. 
Carlyle had a fancy once of an old jDrofessor 
who was the Professor of Things in General; 
and I do not see how anybody can be a suc- 
cessful professor of anything in particular 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 41 

unless he is a professor also in some degree of 
things in general; because unless he knows, 
and knows with real vision, how that partic- 
ular thing is related to all the rest, he does 
not know anything about it. I have often 
used this illustration : A man loses his way in 
a desert, and we say he has lost himself. If 
you will reflect for a moment, that is the only 
thing he has not lost. He is there ; but he has 
lost all the rest of the world. He does not 
know where any other fixed thing in the world 
is. If he did, he could steer by it and get 
home, or get out of the desert, at any rate. 
His whole validity as a man depends upon his 
knowledge of the points of the compass and 
where everything else in the world is. He 
will run his head against a stone wall if he 
does not know where the stone wall is; and 
after he has run his head against the stone 
wall his identity is of no particular impor- 
tance. He has lost identity. He has lost his 
life, not by not knowing himself, but by not 
knowing where the stone wall was. That is 
what the German scholar has in his mind when 
he speaks of orienting ourselves — knowing 
where the East is. We will not have to go 
East, but if we know where the East is we can 



42 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

steer for any part of the compass by relating 
ourselves properly to the East. 

So we are here setting up on this hill as upon 
a high pedestal once more the compass of hu- 
man life with its great needle pointing stead- 
ily at the lodestar of the human spirit. Let 
men who wish to know come and look upon 
this compass and thereafter determine which 
way they will go ! 




(t) Harris and Ewiiis (f) D. D. Spellman 

SPEAKERS AT THE OPENING OF THE AMERICAN 
UNIVERSITY 
Bishop John W. Hamilton, Bishop William F. McDowell, Bishop Earl 
Cranston, Bishop Alfred Harding (Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Wash- 
ington), Dr. John W. Hancher, representing Board of Education of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 



THE NEW LEARNING FOR THE NEW 

DAY 

Bishop John William Hamilton 

1MAY presume that I am here to-day be- 
cause of a certain right of primogeniture 
and hereditary association. I had the pecu- 
liar privilege of giving the first dollar to found 
the American University. My contribution 
was so nearly nothing I was permitted as son 
of none (Nun) to come up here with Bishop 
Hurst to spy out the country. When he and 
his associates had "returned from searching 
of the land after forty days" they reported 
that they had found the goodly land, the 
"promised land'' — a forest primeval which 
would grow grapes, pomegranates, and figs, 
and with a view more transporting than that 
of Pisgah or Nebo. Then, nearly twenty-five 
years ago, when the Ecumenical Methodist 
Conference which was in session in Washing- 
ton came here to set apart the grounds for pur- 
poses of Christian Education, I was invited 

43 



44 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

with others to set forth something of the plan 
of the University. 

Again when the members of the General 
Conference which met in Baltimore six years 
ago came over to visit the grounds and build- 
ings, I was invited to come, and came with 
them. I ought to be here to-day to round out 
my undergraduate biography in this institu- 
tion. 

I esteem it a most distinguished honor to be 
present to-day, to share in the courtesy and 
favor of the nation's official countenance. It 
is most fitting for us, Mr. President, that you, 
not only as the most distinguished resident of 
this city, and in your high office our first 
citizen of the world, but as primus inter pares 
in your educational position among the dis- 
tinguished Presidents of the great Univer- 
sities of the United States, should grace this 
occasion with your presence and approval. 
And it is in like keeping with the appropriate- 
ness of this hour, and the high calling of the 
great school whose doors we open to-day, that 
the honored members of your cabinet, who are 
distinguished representatives of the Christian 
Church as of the national government should 
lend us their influence and encouragement. 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 45 

The importance of this day will mark an 
epoch in the history of the American Univer- 
sity. But the importance of the occasion is not 
to be measured by the present resources of the 
institution : it is to be determined by all of its 
future history. The great Aberdeen Univer- 
sity of Scotland for four years consisted of a 
single professorship. 

Neither is the significance of these exercises 
to be measured by the honor and distinction 
of all these great representatives even though 
they were unprecedented in their abilities, ex- 
cellence of spirit, and great friendly environ- 
ment. Our presence here will be magnified 
or minified by what is to come. It is not the 
pretensions of this day but the quality and 
amount of work to be done down the long 
years by this university which shall give sig- 
nificance to what we say and do. 

Who are the young men and women to be 
who will enter these open doors and go forth 
from them to help influence the nation and the 
world? We are but the men of to-day; they 
shall be the great men of to-morrow, the 
greater men of the greater to-morrows after 
to-morrow, and then again of the to-morrow^ 
after that to-morrow. Say not that either 



46 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

privilege or achieyement is near to the finish. 
The great men of all the past should be as 
little men in contrast with the great men who 
are to come. We have witnessed great intel- 
lectual achievements, but we are far away 
from the greatest and best of achievements yet 
to be accomplished by the greatest and best 
of men. We have often been told of the eccen- 
tric headmaster in the German school who 
never removed his hat when he met or stood in 
the presence of the nobles and even princes of 
the realm, but always accosted the boys of his 
school when he met them by bowing to them 
and lifting his hat. When he was reproached 
for his disrespect of the nobility he answered 
promptly, "I know who these men are, but I 
do not know who these boys may be." And we 
were told that it was one of the boys who were 
then in his school whose words as a man 
"shook the world.'' 

"The task of the future," said an English- 
man who was interested in the education of 
India, "is gigantic but not impracticable." 
And the task is one, the world over and the 
world under. Education has not yet arrived 
at the age of definition. There have been 
innumerable attempts at definition, but they 



LODESTAK AND COMPASS 47 

all have been spiral movements reaching out 
after something beyond their grasp. They 
have been for the most part efforts in the dark. 
The teachers have been blind leaders of the 
blind, seeking after something if haply they 
might feel after it and find it though it be not 
far from any of them. The whole system of 
education has been like the ship styled King 
of Cork in a fantasy of Mediterranean travel : 

The King of Cork was a funny ship 

As ever plowed the main. 
She kep' no log, she went where she liked, 

So her Cap'n warn't to blame. 

We have started with our youth as if they 
were so many dolts with so many cubic inches 
of vacuum in their heads, which had to be 
filled with so many cubic inches of a certain^ 
kind of filling. And we have gone to a single 
gravel bed or two for the material with which 
to fill all alike, principally to a town of Phocis 
in Greece where ^^the oracles were given forth 
by a priestess, the Pythia, who (according to 
a late tradition) seated herself upon a golden 
tripod above a chasm whence issued mephitic 
vapors. Inspired by these she uttered words 
which were then arranged by prophets espe- 
cially educated for the purpose.'' When the 



48 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

vacuum was supposed to be filled, the psy- 
chosis reached total consciousness at a given 
moment, the student was turned out of the 
schools at the period ironically named Com- 
mencement, a finished product, in most cases. 

The bookful blockhead ignorantly read 
With loads of learned lumber in his head, 

a "mere machine of memory." He was then 
expected to start out and learn his lesson all 
over again in trying to find his place in life 
Avhere for the substance of his success he was 
to engage in what has been vulgarly called 
"making a living. '^ To be a bit more explicit, 
it may be said these Delphian oracles were 
reduced to a system, in a mechanical factory 
known as the college where so much Greek — 
and to modernize it a little, considerable Latin 
— was added, with occasionally only enough 
chemistry to make a solution and every kind 
of so much boy was mixed up for four years, 
and when the drugs were all gone, the finished 
product was turned out to be selected and 
labeled. By the process very often of unnat- 
ural selection the first collection was deemed 
good enough to be set aside for the ministry, 
the second only good enough for the law, and 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 49 

the third would just about do for the prac- 
tice of medicine. After that what was left was 
known as cullings, and they were thrown in 
a heap for the schools, the trades, and the labor 
unions generally to pick out as they came 
along, and set to work as occasion might re- 
quire. The carpenter was at liberty to set 
aside the brashy timber from the sound, and 
the fishmonger to cull the small oysters from 
the large. The outcome of such schools was 
more misfits than fits. And the result has been, 
the professions with here and there an excep- 
tion have gone along "jargoning like a for- 
eigner at his food,'^ and the tradesmen have 
had a happy-go-lucky time of it, or have been 
playing at a game in which from the very 
start it was evident to the skillful mind, that 
they were sure to lose. Hence ninety to ninety- 
five per cent of all the men who have "gone 
into business" have made failures of it: full 
as large a percentage as the professions should 
show. The unfortunates have clamored, and 
made their own matters worse by seeking to 
correct the deepseated error with revolts and 
strikes. And the whole country has been wild 
with panics which, like the seasons, have come 
in cycles, one about every nineteen years. 



50 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

Whether it is because the education has been 
so misfitting, or many parents and guardians 
have no care for the welfare of their children, 
we have now whole sections of the country 
which provide no kind of schools for their 
youth except when and where the saloon and 
other liquor interests supply the funds. And 
there are whole States where ignorance is such 
bliss, and learning such a luxury that the rul- 
ing class furnish only such schools for the 
most ignorant as the taxes on the poverty of 
the most indigent poor can pay for. What 
would be the enlightened world's opinion of 
the intelligence of this country if no schools 
should be provided for the children of the im- 
migrants until the taxes on the immigrants 
themselves were sufficient to erect the school- 
houses and hire the teachers for the schools? 

President Eliot of Harvard University has 
described conditions which must not be 
allowed to continue. He says : "The efficiency 
of legislatures and the respect in which they 
are held have declined. The courts are, as a 
whole, less efficient and less respected to-day 
than they were a generation or two ago. Rev- 
erence for law is not maintained at its old 
level." And he includes the church in his 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 51 

description of delinquencies, in its unwilling- 
ness to "rely on the fundamental teachings 
of Christ." "Legislature, court, and church 
then," he says, "seem to be passing through 
some organic transition which temporarily 
impairs their powers." He turns to the 
schools for his hope of their recovery from 
these conditions and concludes that "in our 
country education is the one great agency for 
promoting intelligence and righteousness, 
which unquestionably has gained power in the 
United States during the last half century." 

But it is quite evident that a better educa- 
tion or a different dissemination of it is needed 
to correct the spirit of the age: for it is the 
public spirit which needs the schooling. The 
definition of education yesterday will not do 
for to-day, and the definition of to-day will not 
do for to-morrow. 

We must lift our eyes to a larger vision: 
we must lift our age to a nobler living. We 
have come to the verge of the old learning. We 
must cross the chasm to the school and the era 
of the New Learning. We must seek for and 
acquaint ourselves with new definitions. The 
old no longer will do. 

"Education," said Emerson, "should be 



52 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

broad as man." This it must be to keep 
abreast of all his needs and all his aspirations. 
And what the one man needs and feels all men 
need and feel. Individual education must be 
made national, and the national education 
must provide for the needs and feelings of 
every individual until the blight of ignorance 
is lifted from every mind under its sway. As 
an eagle stirreth her nest, it must awaken 
sluggish minds, and where there is no imjiulse 
in the community it must incarnate one, to 
make provision for the two needs of knowing 
and loving. Ignorance, like slavery, is a 
prison, and no nation is wholly free so long 
as there remains an ignorant person in it. No 
man is a good citizen who can look with the 
least degree of allowance on the ignorance of 
his fellow man. By so doing he endangers his 
own freedom. Like the English in India we 
are committed to the education of the whole 
population for our own safety. There are 
many things in common in the relation of the 
English government to the Indian people and 
the American government to the American 
people. For its own safety and the well being 
of the Indian people, the English government 
is committed to the English education in the 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 53 

English language, and not the Oriental learn- 
ing in the Asiatic tongues. The government 
policy of education at first and until the time 
of Macaulay was the revival and encourage- 
ment of Sanskrit and Arabic learning. Ap- 
propriations were made for this purpose and 
the money was expended in printing Sanskrit 
and Arabic works and in paying stipends to 
teachers and students. But there were two 
other factors at work which soon gave ^^quite 
other directions to educational enterprise. 
These were first Christian missionaries; and 
second, a spontaneous demand for liberal edu- 
cation on the part of the more advanced think- 
ing members of the Hindu community in Cal- 
cutta." It was Raja Ram Mohan Roy more 
than any other of his race who incarnated the 
impulse which led thinking Indians to desire 
and work for "English education." This he 
did, he said, that "the ideas and science of the 
West should liberate the minds of his country- 
men and bring new light." It was not long 
before the policy of the government was 
changed. It was Frederick the Great who 
said: "An educated people can be easily gov- 
erned." Lord Macaulay soon saw that uni- 
formity of language was necessary to unity 



54 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

of government, and it is to Mm the govern- 
ment owes the English education, as it has 
since been developed all over India. He had 
^^no difficulty in showing that English is the 
key to more useful knowledge than Sanskrit 
or Arabic''; "his energetic rhetoric was de- 
cisive." If there is unrest there now, what 
would there have been without the schools for 
the study of the English language, with the 
"147 vernacular languages of extraordinary 
variety, and these languages spoken by nearly 
or quite 300,000,000 persons"? 

There are 3,424 spoken languages or dia- 
lects in the world, and 1,624 of these in Amer- 
ica, while there are only 937 in all Asia, 587 
in Europe and 276 in Africa. Can there be 
any argument framed therefore which would 
not select the English language for all Amer- 
icans? There is more room in the language 
than any other for the freedom of all other 
tongues. It contains approximately 600,000 
words. The vocabulary of one of our standard 
dictionaries aggregates about 450,000 words. 
No obstacle or contrivance can hinder the 
much wider usage of English than by Amer- 
icans only. It is the language of business and 
travel already around the world. It is now 




SOFA OF ABR\HA-M LINCOLN 

Used by ^Martyred President throughout his term in The White 
House. Now owned by the American University. 




CIVIL WAR DESK OF SECRETARY STANTON 

Now owned by the American L^niversity. 



LODESTAE AND COMPASS 55 

spoken by more than 27 per cent of all the per- 
sons who speak respectively all the European 
languages combined, and by more than one 
tenth of the world's population, or more than 
160,000,000 persons. The number of persons 
who speak the language now is eight times 
the number who spoke it at the beginning of 
the last century, and it is spoken by nearly 
as many persons as speak the French, Italian, 
and Spanish all taken together. Time was 
when it was widely rumored that no great 
scholarship could be contained within the 
English language, and scholarship generally 
was supposed to consist mostly of familiarity 
with the dead languages. ^^ Scholars," so 
called, "could feed their minds only on the 
classics much as the vultures crave and find 
their food. But scholarship is no longer con- 
fined to things which are past and dead." 
''Experience to most men," said Coleridge, "is 
like the stern lights of a ship which illumine 
only the track it has passed." The thorough, 
scholarship needed in our day must be at- 
tained and given through the living to the liv- 
ing and not through the dead to the dead, "for- 
getting those things which are behind and 
reaching forth unto those which are before." 



56 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

Garrick was right when he said we are obliged 
to our imagination for three fourths of our 
importance, if the ambiguity of the saying 
includes such use of the imagination as to clear 
the way and help on to whatever it is import- 
ant that we should know. Such scholarship 
demands a living vehicle of expression, and if 
ever the English language was too limited for 
scholarship it has gotten bravely over it, for 
its life gives it scope. ^'Wherever language is 
alive," said Lowell, "it grows." 

Our education must not only be a national 
one but it must be American — our own. Our 
life is distinct from every other; it is its own 
type; it must be thoroughly furnished with 
its own equipment. Its kind of freedom, ag- 
gressive movement, and sphere of action are 
all peculiar to itself. There is nothing immo- 
bile here: everything is in transition. We 
have outrun the rest of the world in many of 
our achievements. Our possessions are not all 
of the best, but there are more of them and 
some of them very desirable. Our opportu- 
nities are greater, so also are our responsibil- 
ities, and doubtless our dangers. We must 
therefore school ourselves to our own task. 
Come here who may, they must adapt them- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 57 

selves to our way. There is no such process of 
assimilation going on anywhere else in the 
Avorlcl. We are the crucible in which is melted 
the outcome of all nations. We calcine and 
oxidize until the balance is complete. To this 
end we must use our own methods. We must 
Americanize all our foreign peoples. The 
largeness of the task must appear when we 
class one third of all our ninety millions and 
more as foreign born, and still add a million 
more each year. 

As I said, when this ground was consecrated 
to the New Learning, we were making history 
fast, but faster now than then. We have seen 
since then a half dozen nations born in a day. 
Mr. Stead was strictly accurate when he wrote 
his book on the Americanization of the world. 
Our prodigal expenditure of money in travel 
has opened hostelries in foreign lands which 
cater to Americans and are found all around 
the globe. Our academies, colleges, and uni- 
versities are frequented by students from the 
backward nations in the Eastern hemisphere 
as well as the Western. The uprising in Mex- 
ico is inspired and fostered by the influence of 
agitations in the United States. Japan and 
China and Korea are all indebted to our 



58 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

Western civilization for their awakening. Our 
form of republican government is copied in 
Avhole or in part by the republics of Argentina, 
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa 
Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, 
Guatemala, Hayti, Honduras, Liberia, Mexico, 
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Salvador, 
Switzerland, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Under 
pressure of the same powerful influence the 
limited monarchies watching and waiting 
stand with fear and trembling. The whole 
British Empire quakes with the forebodings 
of a woman scorned and the Ulster militia. 

And no other government is so set for the 
peace of all nations. It has often been said 
that England, Germany, and the United States 
can compel the peace of the world. The time 
is not far distant when the United States can 
do it alone. The German Imperial Command- 
ant Lazarus von Schwendi spoke from expe- 
rience when he said, "To carry on war three 
kinds of things are necessary : Money ! Money ! 
Money V If the story told of the Rothschilds 
is true, they held back a European war a few 
years ago by refusing the loan of money for 
war purposes; this country can soon check 
any great war in the same way. We are al- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 59 

ready the wealthiest of all nations ; the balance 
of trade has crossed to this side of the seas, 
and we shall not stand long waiting for the 
balance of money. But we now have the better 
way of putting an end to war, and that is by 
our preaching and practice. Our example can 
do more than our money. So long as we can 
bear slight and injury without anger and re- 
sentment, and when we have been wronged 
turn to international courts for recourse, the 
other nations sooner or later will imitate us. 
We have held back already "the iron cure of 
humanity" in more instances than one, and we 
have taught victorious nations to settle with 
their defeated enemies, by i)aying them sat- 
isfactorily for the damage they have done them 
and in sending back tribute money after it has 
been handed over. It is our privilege to teach 
mankind 

Peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than war. 

It behooves us therefore to look well to our- 
selves as the world's example. 

If education, as President Eliot assures us, 
"is the one agency for promoting intelligence 
and righteousness,'' it must be so defined as 
to meet the need of every unlearned person. 



60 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

keep abreast of the aspirations of the learned, 
and secure the welfare and usefulness of all the 
social organism by bringing the greatest good 
within the reach of each and every individual 
to promote his well-being and usefulness. The 
Pythia, then, not of mephitic vapors, but the 
priestess of inspiration to noble living and 
well doing, 

Shall sit at the gates of the world, 
Where nations shall gather and meet, 

And the East and the West at her bidding 
Shall lie in a leash at her feet. 

The object of education is not only the diffu- 
sion of the improved arts, science, philosophy, 
and literature of America and Europe which 
are only means to an end, it is not only cul- 
tural and vocational, to be conformed to the 
world, but for the higher and holier purpose 
of being transformed by the renewing of the 
mind to exert a right influence on the manners, 
the conduct, and the character of mankind. 

We have given more attention to the making 
and teaching of books than to the study and 
development of the students — "The proper 
study of mankind is man." Experimental psy- 
chology is comparatively a new study, and a 
psychological laboratory is a purely modern 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 61 

invention. It is only the New Learning which 
has discovered that the school is less for tui- 
tion than ignition, and that the teacher is 
more a torchbearer than a cotton press. Edu- 
cation is more an awakening of inborn and 
embrjonate faculties than the filling of a help- 
less vacuum, whether applied to the individ- 
ual or the nation. It is an in-look for the call- 
ing forth of an out-look. We do not educate 
the man by ^'telling him what he knows not, 
but by making him what he was not and what 
he will remain forever.'' It is not, then, simply 
the intellectual side of education which is 
needed — there need to be no underestimate of 
its importance — it is essential to all learning. 
And there is inestimable value in education 
for itself alone. But the supreme import- 
ance of education is in the creating and 
strengthening of character which alone gives 
certain steadfastness and permanent prestige 
to the whole man and the whole nation, and 
this has not been done and cannot be done by 
intellectual attainments only. How this is to 
be done is the great question engaging the 
minds of the strongest educators everywhere. 
During the year 1910 there were 462,530 
admissions or commitments to the prisons of 



62 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

this country, and on the first day of that year 
the prison population was 109,311. The num- 
ber of juvenile delinquents reported during the 
same year was 22,903. By far the larger pro- 
portion of these numbers is not chargeable to 
our foreign-born population. Five sixths of 
the total number of prisoners in the United 
States reported by the Commissioner-General 
of Immigration for 1908 were native born, and 
for the most part had at some time been in our 
schools. The average number of murders an- 
nually during the twenty years from 1885 to 
1904 was 6,597. In 1896 the number was 
10,662. In Germany the convictions equaled 
95 per cent and a fraction; in the United 
States 1.3 per cent. We are the most criminal 
nation upon the face of the earth. The civil 
prosecutions are similar games of chance, prob- 
ably with 95 to 1. The plaintiff and defendant 
both will give the lawyers all they have in it 
and possibly all they have besides. A case 
was settled a short time ago in New York 
which had been in the courts twenty-five years 
and cost the litigants from a quarter to half a 
million of dollars, and the total amount in 
dispute went for costs long years ago. The 
courts are merely a travesty of Justice — spec- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 63 

tacular debating societies to try the wits of 
men for the support of the court officials 
and the attorneys by a burdensome taxation 
of disinterested persons who seldom go near 
them. 

If the schools are to reduce and finally 
eliminate these lamentable statistics and make 
over these trifling tribunals, "the task" may 
seem "gigantic/' but is it impracticable? It 
certainly becomes us to look into the char- 
acter of our schools and the kind of instruc- 
tion which is given. If the mere filling process 
is to continue, it would seem at least prudent 
to change from the pits whence the kind of 
gravel has been taken. Little wonder that 
Bishop Wellden, who knew something of 
India and much of education, should declare 
that he held with an intensity of conviction 
which it was difficult to express "that secular 
education, wherever it was given and by whom- 
soever it was given, was a lamentable failure." 
One of the members of the Madras Council of 
Education said more than a half century ago, 
"Education without moral culture is probably 
as often injurious as beneficial to society." 

It must be admitted that "the education of 
character, which is presumably what is meant 



64 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

by moral education, is something very deep- 
lying and depends on a number of factors of 
which school life is only one." Education 
compasses all development in the home, the 
school, and the apprenticeship of every voca- 
tion. Doctor Duncan, Principal of the Presi- 
dency College, Madras, well says: ^^Morality 
must be taught in schools, in the way in which 
it is taught at home and in the social life of 
the young.'' If such education is beset with 
so great difficulty in State schools as to make 
it impracticable because of the traditions and 
religious differences of the people, then some 
school must be found in which such education 
may prevail. It is not impracticable, and no 
other safeguard has been discovered for hu- 
man conduct and private character. And 
such tuition does avail in preventing crime 
and securing integrity. But it must be a reli- 
gious instruction which obtains. Education 
which is not rooted in religion has no safe- 
guards. But it is not enough that it should 
be religious only. There is a religion that 
teaches that a common water snake is the em- 
bodiment of the god of the floods, and a little 
while ago the prime minister of the country 
in which such belief prevails went in to the 



LODESTAE AND COMPASS 65 

temple into which one of the snakes had 
crawled and worshiped it. In this Christian 
country we accept the statement of Mark Hop- 
kins that '^religion without morality is super- 
stition and a curse, and anything like an ade- 
quate and complete morality without religion 
is impossible." Because the water snake reli- 
gion with numerous others is in this country 
we have been driven into the churches for both 
our religion and morality. And it is the per- 
sons who elude the church schools that fill our 
prisons. Judge Faucett of Brooklyn stated 
recently that of the 2,700 boys charged with 
crime who had come before him during his five 
years as judge not one of them attended Sun- 
day school. During the eight years that I was 
in charge of the more than fifty secondary 
schools and colleges of the church, among both 
the white and colored people in the South, 
which for so many generations had been the 
schoolless section of the country, not a single 
student of all those schools was lynched or 
charged with the crime for which the sav- 
ages pretensively claimed to lynch their vic- 
tims. And what was true of our schools was 
true of all the students in the schools of the 
American Missionary Association. 



66 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

But Christian schools without Christian 
teachers are like a ship at sea whose captain 
has "crawled in through the cabin window." 
When Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, who later 
was twice Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta Uni- 
versity, was addressing a Convocation in Ma- 
dras in 1868, "he singled out as the man to be 
named first for greatness of character in the 
nineteenth century not any statesman or sol- 
dier or man of letters, but Dr. Thomas Arnold 
of Rugby.'' 

The baffling nature of the hindrances led 
the English government in India to divorce 
the higher education from government control. 
And such will be the American policy when all 
the higher education sets up its only essential 
aim and assumes responsibility, for, as Renan 
said, "The question of education is for the 
modern world a question of life or death on 
which depends the future." The fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the con- 
clusion of the whole matter is "Fear God, and 
keep his commandments, for this is the whole 
duty of man." To this end we open this uni- 
versity to-day with full confidence that the 
blessing of the Immanent Presence shall rest 
upon all its teachers and all its students al- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 67 

way, for "religion and education are not a 
match for evil without the grace of God." 

I was present in the meeting of a ministerial 
association at Plymouth, Massachusetts, dur- 
ing the erection of the great Faith Monument. 
The association was invited to visit the monu- 
ment, and they went in a body. They hap- 
pened to be there at the very hour when the 
builders had the great granite basal figure en- 
titled "Education" swinging by the ropes. The 
master mason, evidently a man of much senti- 
ment, said, "Education ought to be set by 
religion," and he called to the preachers to 
take the ropes, which they did, and lower the 
great stone symbol of the nation's presiding 
genius, to its final resting place on one of the 
four significant corners of the monument. 

In no other city of the world than Washing- 
ton should education in like manner be set, 
so certainly, so firmly, so permanently upon 
the one foundation of the Christian faith. 



PRO DEO ET PATRIA* 

JosEPHus Daniels^ Secretary of the Navy 

(This address marked the raising of the American flag 
over the grounds and buildings of the American Uni- 
versity. ) 

IT is my good fortune to be at the head of 
the biggest university in America. That, 
no doubt, accounts for my invitation to have 
a place on the program this afternoon. It may 
not be generally known that the United States 
Navy is our foremost educational institution, 
with schools and colleges afloat and ashore, 
giving instruction from the three R's to the 
most abstruse learning for diplomats and the 
most practical lessons in mechanics and tech- 
nology. Every day fifty thousand sailors 
answer the call "to books" and combine edu- 
cation of the head with education of the hand. 
A few months after the American people 
elected a school teacher to be President, every 
officer in the American Navy became a school 

*Pro Deo et Patria is the motto of the American Uni- 
versity. It was that of Mazzini. 

68 




o 

I— t 

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1—4 

Q 

o 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 69 

teacher. I come, therefore, to bring greetings 
from the University of the Navy to the Amer- 
ican University, and welcome it to a high place 
among the educational institutions of our 
country. 

Religion and Patriotism have been twins 
from the day they united to lead the children 
of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. 
It has been said that the trekking from the 
Nile to the Jordan was God's first university, 
and that in forty years it gave the world but 
two graduates — Joshua and Caleb. But what 
graduates they were ! "For God and Country" 
has been the shibboleth of every notable con- 
test in the history of the world. I will not 
say there is no patriotism separate from reli- 
gion, but it is within the truth to say that in 
every decade the noblest patriotism has bur- 
geoned forth from homes where religion pre- 
sided and the household worshiped God. 

As our fathers looked to God to help them 
both in settling and freeing our country, so 
must we remember that the Bible, which must 
be the standard for national as well as indi- 
vidual well-being, says, "Righteousness exalt- 
eth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any 
people." Washington upon being congratu- 



70 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

lated in that remarkable correspondence from 
every church denomination npon his accession 
to the presidency, said the first and last word, 
as to the country's dependence upon God, when 
he wrote in answer to the letter from one 
church: "While I reiterate the professions of 
my dependence upon Heaven, as to the source 
of all public and i^rivate blessings, I will ob- 
serve, that the general prevalence of piety, 
philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy 
seems, in the ordinary course of human affairs, 
particularly necessary for advancing and con- 
firming the happiness of our country. While 
all men in our territories are protected in 
worshiping the Deity according to the dictates 
of their consciences, it is rationally to be ex- 
pected from them in return that they will all 
be emulous of evincing the sanctity of their 
professions by the innocence of their lives and 
the beneficence of their actions; for no man 
who is profligate in his morals, or a bad mem- 
ber of the civil community, can possibly be a 
true Christian, or a credit to his own religious 
society." 

And again he said to another faith, "May 
the same wonder-working Deity, who long 
since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyp- 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 71 

tian oppressions and planted them in the 
promised land, whose providential agency has 
lately been conspicuous in establishing these 
United States as an independent nation, still 
continue to water them with the dews of 
Heaven, and to make the inhabitants of every 
denomination participate in the temporal and 
spiritual blessings of that people whose God 
is Jehovah." 

Our flag must mean as much to us as it did 
to Washington, and if we are to continue 
strong and great, and fulfill our missions in 
the earth, we must realize that what Webster 
said must be true nationally as well as indi- 
vidually, when he remarked: "The greatest 
thought which has ever come to me is as to my 
personal responsibility to God.'' May this 
great university impress upon the youth of 
the land the truth that the nation must exist 
for the glory of the Lord of the Universe, and 
that education must be the handmaid of reli- 
gion. 

Methodism was born in a university. The 
new and vitalizing faith that transformed the 
lives of John and Charles Wesley and their 
associates, came to them as they pursued their 
studies at Oxford. But the religion that made 



72 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

them living epistles did not stop in the uni- 
versity or in its environs. It gave them a 
vision of duty to mankind that enabled John 
Wesley to declare, "The world is my parish." 
The impulse of Methodism was given direction 
and organizing capacity by the training of the 
college, but its inspiration came from a divine 
source. Its mission was to preach a living 
gospel to dying men. The godly zeal of the 
early Methodists did not revolutionize Oxford, 
for, like many educational institutions in our 
day, formalism and bookishness often choke 
out simple faith in the Word. The Wesleys 
and Whitefield were learned in the classics, 
but they soon heard the call to go into the 
highways and publish the good news. Denied 
admission into pulpits, they made pulpits in 
God's first temj)les and carried their messages 
to the forgotten men and women in crowded 
factory centers and to the toilers wherever 
they could secure a hearing. With what result? 
More men and women in America hold to the 
creed of Methodism than any other Protestant 
Church. It has been often said — and some- 
times truly — of Methodists what the Irish 
school master said of the pioneer Wesley ans 
in Ohio: "The Methodists are a very narry 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 73 

people. I could never belong to that church. 
I could never bear to have to feel my spiritual 
pulse every morning to see if my religious 
temperature was normal. No, I could never 
be a Methodist. They are a very narry people. 
But/' added the Irishman, "I have observed 
that a narry stream runs strong." Under the 
auspices of this strong church, broad in every- 
thing except where it thinks the Ruler of the 
Universe has narrowed the way from earth 
to heaven, the doors of this institution are 
opened to promote learning and research. 
May it fulfill its high mission and be a leading 
factor in the agencies working to make the 
national capital a Mecca for education as it is 
the Mecca for statesmanship ! 

In a very few moments we are to raise the 
Stars and Stripes over a great university 
about to be dedicated to the glory of God and 
service of mankind. It is appropriate that on 
such an occasion the flag of our country should 
be hoisted. The flag is the symbol of our love 
of country and our worship of God. From the 
most ancient times men have been swayed by 
symbols. There has always been a craving in 
the human heart that its fathomless feeling, its 
inexpressible emotions, shall find some out- 



74 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

ward representation. Unable often to inter- 
pret the passions and longings of its own 
breast, the soul has craved some object in 
which they might be concentrated, crystal- 
lized, and visualized. The Almighty recog- 
nized this instinct of the human nature when 
he put the bow in the skies. Man's need of 
symbol is therefore doubtless the reflection in 
himself of his Maker's image. 

Our flag is the proud confession to the 
world, in the laconic but eloquent speech of 
symbolism, of the principles, faith, and history 
of the nation. Designed partly by the Father 
of his Country, shaped originally by the soft 
hands of woman, originated in the City of 
Brotherly Love, dedicated by poesy, bathed in 
the blood of patriots, tattered with the bullets 
of enemies, and glorified with the forty-eight 
stars of a perfect Union, the Stars and Stripes 
is the most beautiful symbol of nationality the 
world has ever seen. 

God has, through the whole history of the 
earth, saved up the most beautiful of all the 
flags for our own nation. There is no doubt, 
viewed from the standpoint of art alone, that 
the Stars and Stripes is the most exquisite 
ensign that ever fluttered in a breeze. The 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 75 

reason is not far to seek. Beyond the western 
waters was raised np this giant republic with 
its kindly message of liberty to all the world 
for all time. To it was committed this price- 
less pearl, and it was but fitting that the 
national emblem should reflect and reecho 
something of the value of the gift itself. 

The beauty of our flag has had just tribute 
paid to it by the late Senator Hoar, of Massa- 
chusetts, to whom it was given to be spokes- 
man for the nation, when he said : 

I have seen the glories of art and architecture, and of 
mountain and river. I have seen the sun set on Jung- 
frau and the full moon rise over Mont Blanc, but the 
fairest vision on which these eyes ever looked was the 
flag of my country in a foreign land. Beautiful as the 
flowers to those who love it, terrible as a meteor to those 
who hate it, it is the symbol of power and glory and the 
honor of seventy million Americans. 

Seventy millions then, nearer one hundred 
millions now. 

It is a symbol which stands for liberty : The 
men of the Thirteen Colonies, who first set- 
tled this country, came here that they might 
find liberty — that freedom which was not 
theirs under the ancient governments of 
Europe, and Old Glory to-day never flies down 
the street above the tatoo of the drums and 



76 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

the flare of the trumpets but that we hear in 
her fluttering the heartbeat of man from the 
time he first yearned for liberty — liberty of 
person, liberty of conscience, liberty of speech, 
liberty for the exercise of genius and the 
development of talent. For the inalienable 
rights of man, ^'for life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness," the Stars and Stripes stand 
as no ensign ever stood before. It speaks to 
us of Concord and Bunker Hill, of Trenton 
and King's Mountain, of the Declaration of 
Independence and the Constitution. 

It speaks for hope. When the Committee 
of Congress decided that the flag should have 
thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, there 
seemed to be something prophetic in the de- 
sign. The star always speaks for hope; it 
tells the mariner that the midnight storm is 
passed; the stripe speaks for suffering from 
the blow of fate. Our country has had its 
share both of national joy and national chas- 
tening. It has been made perfect through suf- 
fering. We came to Yorktown by way of 
Valley Forge. We came to a perfectly ce- 
mented union through the shedding of fra- 
ternal blood. We have come through the time 
of stripes to the time of stars. We can never 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 77 

again believe that even in the woes of panic 
we shall not emerge into prosperity again. 
Our experience has taught us that the black- 
est cloud has its silver lining. We may not 
expect that the republic will not again have 
its problems to confront, its perils to pass 
through, its evils to correct, but we may never 
believe with Old Glory as the emblem of our 
national ideals that this republic shall ever 
crumble in the dust among the wrecks of time. 
It stands for shelter. There has been 
wrought in its texture something of the tears 
and blood and sacrifice of the exiles from other 
lands who came here when our shores were 
bleak and our wilderness primeval in order to 
find a refuge from persecution and tyranny. 
The new world was to them a shelter in the 
time of storm. Since the erection of our re- 
public, since Old Glory was first flung out to 
the winds, half the monarchies of the world 
have become republics, as if those who could 
not come to our shores would follow our ex- 
ample and seize for themselves the blessings 
which America insured to her sons and 
daughters. Secretary of State William H. 
Seward relates the following interesting inci- 
dent of his travels in Egypt : 



78 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

One day our party, made up of ladies and gentlemen 
on horseback, were ascending a hill when we observed 
one of the war parties that infest the country closely 
following us; and when we reached the top of the hill 
we met another one of these war parties, and they were 
enemies about to engage in mortal conflict. Here we 
were, a party of Americans, between these two contend- 
ing forces. What to do, none of us at first knew, but 
what we did do was this : we took from a portmanteau the 
American flag, and, riding a little way to the side of the 
road, we threw that flag over the limb of a tree, and it 
was instantly recognized by both of those contending 
war parties, and we sat down beneath it as safe as if we 
had been sitting in the shadow of our old capitol in 
Washington. 

The flag has always stood for protection 
of the weak and for refuge for the distressed. 
Does it stand for that to-day as much as it did 
when its splendor enraptured Washington, or 
when it inspired Jackson to drive back the 
red-coated veterans of Wellington from our 
shores? Is it possible the time can ever come 
when it shall be planted over a conquered 
people, when it shall ever be carried by our 
armies in a war of aggression? Will it ever 
stand for any such principle as government of 
an annexed and alien people without the con- 
sent of the governed? God forbid! We do 
not believe that it will ever float over another 
foot of annexed territory. It must stand as it 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 79 

has always stood, for shelter, for protection, 
for refuge and rest. 

In its very essence it stands for patriotism. 
Patriotism has its beginning in attachment 
for locality. It grows; it has a healthy and 
normal development. It is the man who loves 
the home of his boyhood who makes the patriot, 
w^ho volunteers in time of war. 

It stands for all the ideals of the American 
people, and one of the greatest of these is for 
an educated citizenship. Will our citizenship 
measure up to the country's needs? In a 
large measure the answer to this question 
depends upon whether our educational insti- 
tutions educate for service and illustrate the 
highest ideals. Only this week, a distin- 
guished preacher in New York declared that 
"our universities are controlled by capital and 
do not heed the call of struggling humanity.'' 
If that should become true, to what source 
could Ave turn for Leadership and Light? 
Your university, fortunate in its environment 
and fortunate in its broad scope, cannot fail 
to hear the call to serve humanity. It will 
hear the clear call that Wesley heard at Ox- 
ford, and put all learning and science under 
contribution for the opening of doors of help 



80 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

and opportunity to struggling men and women. 
In this high service it will marry Religion and 
Education, a union necessary for the highest 
development of our race. Because Education 
and Patriotism in America are one, it is fit- 
ting to-day that we raise the flag to float over 
this great school of learning which we are 
establishing in our nation's capital. 



"BUT I KNOW A NAME, A NAME, 
A NAME !" 

William Jennings Bryan^ Secretary 
OF State 

IT is worth while waiting fifty-four years to 
hear a Methodist bishop say that "we are 
all Democratic." I am glad to be here, al- 
though it seems that my presence more than 
my speech is necessary. We can all help by 
our presence, but none of us can add much by 
speech to what has already been said. I am 
glad to participate in this extraordinary occa- 
sion, and if I have any right to participate, 
it is not due to the fact that I am holding a 
high of&ce. I do not emphasize as much as 
some do the value of an office. Sometimes it 
comes by accident, and sometimes, as in my 
case, by favor. And if it comes rightfully, it 
ought to come more as a result than as a cause. 
On this occasion to-day, and at this time, 
we are dealing with matters so important that 
the mere holding of an office does not justify 
participation in this program. The President 

81 



82 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

was here, but he had a higher claim to the 
invitation and the opportunity you gave him 
than because he was President. He repre- 
sents, as no other President has ever done, the 
union of learning and religion in this country. 
He is the first of our Presidents taken from 
an educational career ; the first chief executive 
who in his life work was an exponent of our 
educational system. And no President has 
brought more spiritual consecration to his 
work than President Wilson. And Secretary 
Daniels is here, not primarily because he is 
the Secretary of the Navy — that might entitle 
him to a place at a Baptist meeting; but that 
would not justify his coming to a Methodist 
meeting. You might invite him because he is 
a Methodist; he represents the reunion of the 
two churches. I might creep in on my rela- 
tionships, for my mother was a Methodist 
when I was born, my wife was a Methodist 
when we were married, and the only one of my 
children who will carry my name down to 
posterity is a Methodist. Our only son is a 
member of this church; I am thus hedged 
about on three sides by Methodists ! 

And yet I think I have even a better claim 
to a place on this program; while I place but 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 83 

little emphasis upon those lines that separate 
the chnrch into different groups, I have a firm 
grip on the fundamentals of Christianity that 
underlie all our faiths. And these good men 
of the Methodist faith who have laid the 
foundation here of the American University 
are not more interested than I am in all that 
the university stands for. I have not made 
the sacrifices for it that some of them have, 
and my name cannot be linked with it as the 
names of some of them are. I imagine that 
the Hamilton brothers will be to the Amer- 
ican University much what the Wesley broth- 
ers were to the early Methodist Church. But 
even the Hamilton brothers do not appreciate 
more than I do the importance of bringing 
higher education under Christian influence. 

It is not necessary for me to make a speech 
to-day. I think I am down for an "address," 
and there is a difference between an "address'' 
and a "speech." I learned it in the campaign 
of 1896. I found they were overworking me 
and I told them that, as a matter of self- 
preservation — in order that I might have as- 
surance that I would live until election day — 
I must limit my speeches to three each day. 
And so a few days after that, after I had 



84 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

spoken about ten times, I looked upon the pro- 
gram, and I found that I was then about to 
make my first "speech.'' They had put me 
down for three "speeches" and twenty-six "ad- 
dresses," by which they meant that an "ad- 
dress" was to be only of short duration, while 
a "speech" was a longer effort. I am down 
for an "address" this afternoon, and I could 
not, without violating the proprieties of the 
occasion, venture to make a "speech," after all 
that we have heard this afternoon. 

1 did not know what my text was until after 
I reached the grounds. I tried to find by 
inquiry last night what I was expected to talk 
about, but I inquired of those who Avere going 
to talk, and they seemed afraid to tell me, for 
fear I might speak before they did; and so it 
was not until to-day, after lunch, as we were 
preparing to come to the platform that I found 
my text. Bishop Cranston was going with me 
through this splendid building, and we came 
to the chair that you will find up in the As- 
sembly Hall. It is a chair that was presented 
to this Institution by the Wesleyan Methodist 
Conference of Great Britain, and is made from 
timber taken from the old church in which 
Wesley preached and near which he lived. We 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 85 

saw carved on the top of the chair these words : 
"Unite the Pair so Long Disjoined — Knowl- 
edge and Vital Piety." That is my text this 
afternoon — "the union of knowledge and reli- 
gion.'' 

My friends, I have no doubt of the future of 
this great university. Why? Because it is 
building on solid rock, and it is prepared to 
do a work that is important, not to this 
church only, nor to this nation only, but to 
the world ! 

What the world needs to-day is the union of 
the head and heart in life's work, and the 
great fault of education, as we have sometimes 
found it, is that it trains the mind, but does 
not train the heart at the same time. If I 
understand the weakness of education, it is, 
first, that it sometimes weans man away from 
sympathy with his fellows. When you unite 
the Christian religion with it, you teach 
brotherhood along with mental development. 
And the second weakness is that the mind is 
sometimes so enlarged that the possessor of 
the mind forgets that "the fear of God is the 
beginning of wisdom." It is the purpose of 
every school with a religious impulse behind 
it, to secure to the individual the intellectual 



86 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

training that he needs without weaning him 
from sympathy with his fellows, and without 
making him forget God. And never have we 
needed such influences more than to-day. We 
ought to teach the doctrine of brotherhood. 
Why? Inventive genius has so multiplied the 
strength of a human arm that aggregations of 
individual wealth that tend to classify so- 
ciety, tend to separate the extremes, so that a 
part of the world does not know and, there- 
fore, cannot sympathize with the rest of the 
world. Unless there is some force constantly 
teaching the doctrine of brotherhood, we will 
find society disrupted, because of the breaking 
of the bonds of sympathy. 

Tolstoy says that the great need of the world 
to-day is sympathy; that back of every wrong 
and injustice of which man complains you will 
find a lack of sympathy. He has suggested 
what is known as ^^bread labor" as a remedy, 
and he insists that man must toil himself if he 
would remember his brother who toils. His 
belief is that only by constant contact with 
manual labor can the heart of man be kept 
linked to the heart of other men. Whether he 
is right in his remedy or not is a matter for 
discussion, but I have no doubt that he is right 




TABLE AND CHAIRS OF SKN AlOK ( IIARLES SUMXER 
In the senator's house the plans for the American University were 
formulated after the house had become an annex of the Arlington Hoteh 
The table and chairs now belong to the American University. 



li ^^^%#' I 

■li ^H ! ft I 



HISTORIC CHAIR 

Carved from oak timbers of City Road Chapel, Lon- 
don. Presented by Wesleyan Conference of Great Bri- 
tain to the American University. 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 87 

when he says that what mankind needs most 
is sympathy. 

What mankind needs is a response from the 
heart of his fellow man, a love broad enough 
to take in all mankind, and if I understand the 
Christian religion, its hope rests upon the 
bringing of all the world into a universal 
brotherhood. 

Wendell Phillips complained of the scholar 
when he said that he did not interest himself 
as he ought in the affairs of his country. He 
said, "The people make history, and the 
scholars write it, half truly and half as colored 
by their prejudices." We need to-day an edu- 
cation that will have a spiritual impulse be- 
hind it, an education that Avill send out its 
graduates, not to sit idly upon the shoulders 
of the multitude, but to get down with the 
multitude and help bear the burden of the 
world. There is nothing else that will make 
a man willing to bear burdens. The difference 
between the selfish man and the unselfish man 
is easily described. The selfish man wants 
somebody else to bear his burdens, and the 
unselfish man is looking for burdens to bear. 
Nothing but religion teaches a man to want 
to bear burdens. This is the change that 



88 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

Christ can bring in a human heart. He can 
change that heart from a stagnant pool into 
a living spring, overflowing with that which 
refreshes and invigorates, and an institution 
like this will live in proportion as it makes 
springs out of those who go forth from it, in 
proportion as it gives an impulse that will 
make life worth living. 

A man will not love his brother unless he 
loves God. I am not a preacher. That was my 
first ambition, but I was only six years old 
when I abandoned it for the law. I am not a 
preacher, but sometimes I feel tempted to 
preach, and I cannot tell how long I shall be 
able to resist the temptation. But if I ever do 
preach, my text is already selected, and here 
it is. The language is stronger than I would 
use, for I am very conservative of statement; 
but I don't like to change the Bible; and this 
is what the Bible says, "If a man says he loves 
God and hates his brother, he is a liar." Now, 
that will be my text, if I ever preach. And it 
will be a long sermon if I attempt to show how 
many there are. It will be a long sermon, if 
I attempt to show in how many different ways 
a man can prove that he hates his brother. 
Therefore, before you can educate a man to 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 89 

love his brother, you must educate a man to 
love his God. And if this great university 
lives up to its possibilities, lives up to the ideas 
and ideals of those who brought it into exist- 
ence, every man and every woman who goes 
out from its doors with a diploma will go with 
a fixed relation established between himself or 
herself and God. 

Religion has been defined as "the relation 
that man fixes between himself and his God." 
And to make you understand how practical 
a thing religion is, the man who gave us that 
definition added that "morality is the outward 
manifestation of that inward relation." In 
other words, religion is the basis of morals, 
and I know of no other foundation upon which 
morality can be built. I can understand how 
a man can borrow his morality ready-made 
from some one who built upon that founda- 
tion ; I can understand how a man in a crowd 
may lean upon some one else when he cannot 
stand alone ; but I know of no foundation for 
a moral code except religion. And when this 
university attempts to put the impulse of reli- 
gion back of the scholars who go forth from it, 
it renders a service to all mankind. 

We need not compare what scholars can do ; 



90 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

some can do more than others ; but there is no 
scholarship that the world has ever known 
which can, without a moral impulse and a spir- 
itual vision, equal the work of the ignorant 
man whose heart has been touched by the love 
of God, and who has brought himself into sym- 
pathy with all humanity. 

The boy who never entered a school, but 
whose heart is aflame with brotherly love will 
do more good than the man who leaves college 
with all the learning that a college can give, 
but who thinks that he has reached a point 
Avhere there is no intellect greater than his 
own. 

The struggle to-day in the intellectual world 
is the struggle in the Garden of Eden — the 
struggle between Faith and Reason. Faith 
said, "Obey," but Reason said, "Why should 
we obey? Why should we not follow our 
reason?" The struggle is just the same with 
every human being. It is between Reason 
and Faith, and the man who tries to walk by 
Reason will stumble. The man who goes no 
faster than he can see goes slowly. The man 
is not far-sighted who walks without faith. 
"The heart," said Pascal, "hath reasons that 
the mind cannot understand, because the heart 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 91 

is of an infinitely higher quality." And so 
faith is higher than reason. Faith is that 
quality of the heart that reaches out toward 
the throne of God, and takes hold upon the 
verities that the mind cannot grasp. Let the 
scholars who are without religion go forth, 
and do what they can; but the world moves 
through those who go out inspired by faith to 
do more than they can see. You cannot tell 
what can be done by calculation. I suppose 
people thought when Bishop Hurst talked 
about ten millions of dollars that it was a 
dream; but when we can give more than ten 
million for one battleship, is it dreaming to 
think that the time will come when you can 
give as much for such an institution of learn- 
ing as this — an institution intended to uplift 
the world — as for one battleship? Compare 
their influence. One man, educated in this 
university and sent out with a passion for 
service, can do more for the peace of the world 
than any hundred battleships ! 

The nations that have rested for their hope 
upon their material strength have gone down. 
The path of history is strewn with the wrecks 
of nations that thought they were omnipotent. 

Why did they go down? Because "the God 



92 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

who reigned over Babylon is the God who is 
reigning yet." It is because God has so made 
this world that only moral forces are the per- 
manent forces; and this institution is build- 
ing for the future and without the danger of 
failure when it is striving to send people forth 
with a desire to put their shoulders under 
heavier loads and bear the burdens that are 
grievous to be borne. 

What can this institution do? Estimate, if 
you can, the combined service of those who 
will feel its influence. Measure, if you can, 
that which will be accomplished by the faith 
that will be inspired here. 

I have never heard a better illustration of 
faith than that given by a colored preacher. 
He said that faith was a Avilliugness to do 
what God told him to do without asking any 
questions. To illustrate it, he said, "If God 
tells me to butt my head through a stone wall, 
I butt. That's my part. Going through the 
wall is the Lord's part!" A homely illustra- 
tion? Yes; but it is true. The great things 
of this world have been done by those who 
had the faith to attempt the seemingly impos- 
sible, and by attempting, proved what man 
could do. 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 93 

I used to wonder how Sodom could have 
been saved by a few righteous men ; I wonder 
no longer. There isn't a community in this 
world that cannot be saved by a few righteous 
people who have the faith to put God to the 
test. I remember hearing a great churchman 
from Canada, speaking in New York a little 
more than a year ago, quote some lines that 
you may have heard. They thrilled me when 
I heard them : 

I know of a land that is sunk in shame, 

Of hearts that faint and tire; 
But I know a Name, a Name, a Name 

That can set that land on fire! 

The men and women who go forth from this 
university rely upon the brain alone ; they will 
go forth with a faith which, like a consuming 
fire, nothing can withstand. 

Faith does not ask what the results are to 
be to the individual. We were reading at 
family worship the other day the life of 
Joseph, and when we read how he was put into 
prison because he would not surrender his 
virtue, I wondered if anybody could find a 
better illustration of the fallibility of human 
reason than could be found there. If there 
ever was a time when a man might have felt 



94 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

justified in saying that it did not pay to do 
right, it was then; but it was through that 
prison that he reached a place by the side of 
Pharaoh, and was able to save a land from 
famine. And so the Christian knows that the 
very trials through which he passes may be 
the steps by which he ascends to higher serv- 
ice. The Christian knows that it was the death 
of the martyrs that made the Church; and 
when he remembers that they could smile amid 
the flames because they had faith that they 
would accomplish more by their death than 
they had been able to accomplish by their lives 
— when the Christian remembers that, he does 
not ask whether he is to live for the truth or 
to die for it. He is as ready to die for it as 
to live for it, if that is to be his lot. In other 
words, if I understand the purpose of this in- 
stitution, it is to make men indifferent as to 
what comes to them, but tremendously inter- 
ested in contributing to the welfare of the 
world. Because that is the purpose of this 
institution, and because I believe that that is 
the way that an individual, a university, or a 
nation, can become great, I am glad to be with 
you to-day. 




FRANCIS ASBURY 
A painting from life now in possession of the American University. 



LIFE-GIRDING 

Franklin Hamilton^ Chancellor of the 
American University 

(Reprinted from the Methodist Review.) 

AN old Arab woman on the River Nile in 
^ Egypt was looking for top soil for her 
melon patch. Scratching at a mound by the 
river side, she uncovered some clay tablets. 
These tablets, when deciphered, furnished 
authentic historical data for a period in Egyp- 
tian history which had been understood but 
little. The mound was Tel-el-Amarna. It 
marked the spot where the Pharaoh x\khen- 
aten had built his capital and had reared his 
temple for the worship of the true God as a 
spiritual deity over against the materialistic 
animal worship of the time. But the new 
departure was too high for that day. The 
Pharaoh died overwhelmed. His body was 
hidden away in a dishonored tomb. Temple 
and city fell into ruins and became heaps for 
the bittern and the jackal. But in time the 

95 



96 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

tablets rehearsing the story were found. And 
now Egyptologists pronounce Akhenaten "the 
world's first idealist and the world's first indi- 
vidual.'' 

John Fletcher Hurst was an idealist. He 
belonged to the Brahmin caste of scholarship 
and refinement. All the more keenly, perhaps, 
did he feel the certain condescension among 
scholars, even in his day, concerning the 
people called Methodists. He recalled that 
Warburton, in the earlier days, had said of 
Methodism that it was the social waste which 
had been cast aside and by spontaneous com- 
bustion took fire. He lived to hear the fling 
of Matthew Arnold that Methodism might be 
emotionalism tinged with morality, but it 
lacked sweetness and light. Himself an ap- 
proved scholar, welcome in any circle of intel- 
lectual exclusiveness, John Fletcher Hurst 
determined to claim for his church that lead- 
ership in the realm of the mind which long 
since she had won in the life of the spirit. As 
the location for his venture he selected the 
capital of this country. Here he sought to 
found a university of loftiest pretension. 
Through the medium of the same undertaking 
he purposed, moreover, to unite the two, so 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 97 

long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety. 
Against the glow of his own enthusiasm there 
soon arose the inevitable shadow of reaction. 
He himself was misunderstood. His scheme 
was deemed "a dream," "a white elephant," 
a "flash in the pan," a "Gargantuan Franken- 
stein which must fall apart through its own 
unwieldiness." And so he died. Many dis- 
cerned not the signs of the times. Of the 
American University they said, "It is heaps 
for the bittern and the jackal." 

They did not understand. Nor little 
wonder. He himself must be an idealist to 
understand that word of Nietzsche, "It seems 
that in order to inscribe themselves upon the 
heart of humanity with everlasting claims, all 
great things have first to wander about the 
earth as enormous and awe-inspiring carica- 
tures." Again was this paradox an actuality. 
For, while the enterprise of a university at the 
national capital seemed only to be wandering 
about the earth as a caricature, in reality it 
was inscribing itself with everlasting claims 
on the hearts of multitudes. "The Whirligig 
of Time," says the clown in Twelfth Night, 
"brings on his revenges." The emphasis in 
human events and in human interest has been 



98 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

shifting since that earlier day of Hurst the. 
dreamer. Joseph's dreams always come true. 
The spirit of the times, even now under our 
own eyes, is changing. To us is being revealed, 
through the American University idea itself, 
the opening of a great and effectual door for 
service in enlightenment and Christian learn- 
ing. Changes, almost spontaneously, step by 
step unfolding themselves, are obliterating 
one by one the grounds of objection to the 
enterprise. The question of competition, for 
example, already has been eliminated. The 
query as to how extraordinary advantages for 
higher learning could be provided for through 
this undertaking, without the raising of some 
Croesus-like, impossible sum of money, has 
been answered. The fear that the plan itself 
has been outgrown is seen now to be only a 
mental quickening to a different angle of 
approach. Closet philosophers remind us that 
this is a wonderful age and that if we are to 
do our day's task worthily in this new world 
of thought and life-girding, it must be no ordi' 
nary contribution that we shall make to the 
guidance of men. Aye, verily. But here we 
find the very clue from the labyrinth for 
which we have sought so long. 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 99 

This is a new day, not only in the life of 
the spirit, but also in the practical affairs of 
men. And it is this vision of the new day 
that has lighted us to a new faith in the Amer- 
ican University undertaking. For under the 
new light it is seen that within the bosom of 
this very enterprise there lies slumbering the 
one norm of life which can adapt itself effica- 
ciously to the altered needs of the time and 
through this very adaptation thrive. Let us 
pause for a moment and see what are the 
needs which thus must be met. 

Three characteristics mark the thought life 
of our time. The first is the search for ulti- 
mate reality. The human spirit seems be- 
witched in its eagerness to find the ultimate 
explanation of things. This attitude of spirit 
expresses itself in research work of every char- 
acter. Our industries and trade, manufac- 
tures, our inventions, methods of transporta- 
tion and communication, our food production, 
our agricultural conservation, even our fish- 
eries, all are revealing our increasing depend- 
ence on science and discovery. The social 
fabric is involved in the outcome of research 
investigations now being conducted in labor- 
atories, research stations, experimental plants. 



100 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

observatories, weather bureaus, and hospitals. 
Remedial agencies for the race in unfathomed 
richness are found to inure to research work- 
ers. Radium and mesothorium project their 
light of hof^e into medicine. Serum therapy 
reinforces the fight against contagion. The 
anopheles maculi pennis, the dread yellow- 
fever bearer, is caught on the wing. And these 
results are merest sparks or scintillations 
from the fires of the toiling research bene- 
factor. At last we have come to see that hu- 
manity itself is to get on largely through the 
discoveries and ventures of such pioneers as 
Harvey, Jenner, Lord Rayleigh, Sir William 
Crookes, Edison, Madame Curie, Stiles, Major- 
Surgeon Reed, Pasteur, Richet, Carrel, Bur- 
bank, and their like. As a consequent upon 
this is the fact that these verv investisfations 
and results are revealing a hitherto undreamed 
of partnership between research and the train- 
ing of youthful minds. Louis Agassiz fore- 
saw this. In his university work long ago 
he combined the two ideas. His students at 
the outset were put at research work as the 
best method of developing their own powers. 
A second characteristic of the thought life 
of to-day is the vitalizing of truth when once 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 101 

discovered. This vitalizing of truth we find 
made possible through the dissemination of 
educative information at first hand to the 
people. The effort to prevent disease, igno- 
rance, and immorality by enlightenment 
through channels that shall reach the hum- 
blest classes, such as health exhibits, warning 
signs, picture displays, and various other mor- 
ally instructive objective demonstrations, is 
one of the marks of the day. The new vision 
of social service, the uplift of the people 
through organizations directed toward public- 
ity and instructional ends, the ever-widening 
utilization of the printed page, the pulpit, and 
reform campaigns, with their frank discussion 
of subjects hitherto tahu^ the bringing of new 
facts and inspiration through Chautauqua 
circuits to communities where the common 
people live, the enormous popularity of the 
problem novel, and the new utilization of the 
stage for informing the careless — all such 
tendencies, to one who understands, mark a 
supreme trend of present-day life. 

A third characteristic of our time is the 
development of individualism. The secret of 
the present vogue of Dr. Maria Montessori 
is that through her method of training child- 



102 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

hood she is endeavoring to answer a demand 
aroused by the psychologic and biologic re- 
rearches of the past two decades. She says, 
^^The fundamental principle must be, indeed, 
the liberty of the pupil." In this doctrine of 
liberty the Montessori method is based upon 
the individual. 

No longer is there any thought of molding 
all individuals alike in life training. Now it 
is sought to find the capabilities of each indi- 
vidual and to develop those capabilities. The 
principle is being accepted that the selection 
of particular individuals of unusual powers 
for special development will secure to the 
race its most rapid advancement through 
properly equipped leadership. This may ac- 
count for the revival of interest in the work 
of the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel. Certain 
it is that there is a well-defined evolution for- 
ward from the work of the great forerunners 
in education — Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Herbart, 
and Froebel. And there is a new emphasis 
given to individual divergence from type. So 
we have increasing specialization in study and 
more and more emphasis laid on vocational 
training. 

Now, what is the inevitable conclusion to 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 103 

be drawn from all this? Is it not that any 
institution which to-day aims to minister to 
the modern needs must adjust itself to these 
new tendencies and interests in life? Gone 
forever is the day when human learning can 
be summed up in the old academic trivium and 
quadriviuni — Lingua^ Tropics ^ Ratio, Numerus, 
Tonus, AnguluSy Astra. Gone forever the day 
when a university doctor can lecture on all 
fields of knowledge, or a medical professor 
can occupy, as Oliver Wendell Holmes said 
that once he did, not a chair in the profes- 
sional school, but a whole settee. This is be- 
cause we are coming to realize that the old 
saying that knowledge is power is not true. 
Useless knowledge has no relation to power. 
And it is power that we must have as girding 
for the life of the new day. For, as De 
Quincey suggests, the difference between 
knowledge and power is of celestial diameter. 
Every step that we take in knowledge only gets 
us further along on the same plane. But the 
very first step in power is a step upward as on 
an ascending Jacob's ladder stretching from 
earth to things above the earth; it is a flight 
upward into another sphere where earth is 
forgot and angels come and minister unto us. 



104 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

With the problem thus frankly stated, is 
there any way by which the American Uni- 
versity can be put into functioning existence, 
so that it can meet the needs which are char- 
acteristic of the life of our time? Is there any 
field which this institution can enter, bring- 
ing the gift of power, and yet be saved from 
useless or destructive competition Avith other 
existing institutions? Is it possible to retain 
the ideals of the founders and yet at the same 
time enable the university to enter on a be- 
neficent career of bringing to other existing 
schools, not rivalry in the struggle for funds, 
students, and prestige, but cooperation, ele- 
ments of assisting strength and quickening, 
wider scope of life and a projected efiiciency? 
Is it possible! In this day and generation of 
grueling fight for one's own, can such things 
be? Again the answer is, "Aye, verily!" As 
ground for our answer, let me hasten to call 
attention at once to unique conditions exist- 
ing to which the American University has 
access. It is not so much what this institu- 
tion has as what now it is able strategically 
to do. 

All the world knows that over a century ago 
George Washington called the attention of 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 105 

the American people to the extraordinary 
advantages that would inure to the whole 
country through the right utilization of the 
government resources for education and schol- 
arly research. These resources are massed in 
the government archives, departments, bu- 
reaus, museums, libraries, and similar insti- 
tutions. It often has been recited how George 
Washington in his will made provision for the 
actual founding of a national university at the 
capital of the country, which should carry out 
this plan of putting the government depart- 
ments to distinctively educational use. It may 
not be so familiar to all, however, that 
"Washington was not alone in his purpose. 
Directly or indirectly, the first six presidents 
favored with a greater or less degree of ear- 
nestness the foundation of a national univer- 
sity." 

Nothing came of it all, however, while the 
government treasures themselves kept heaping 
up and multiplying, until now they represent 
an almost unparalleled storehouse of riches. 
"Every branch of human knowledge has a lit- 
erary deposit in Washington." 

It is to this educational equipment of the 
national government, which for a century thus 



106 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

steadily has been accreting, that we propose 
to turn for the means of enabling the Amer- 
ican University to do some of the things to 
which allusion has been made. 

Certainly will the university be enabled, 
through this Federal treasure house of edu- 
cational material, to attempt her first task, 
that of helping to answer the call to a search 
for ultimate reality. This will be done 
through the organization of an institute for 
research to be operated in connection with the 
government departments and bureaus and yet 
be a component function in the life of the 
American University. This institute will not 
be intended to carry on research work of its 
own. Rather will it be simply a nexus, or con- 
necting link, by means of which students may 
be introduced to the opportunities for research 
now existing in the government departments. 
It is designed to make available what already 
exists, but is not being put to its maximum 
educational use. This institute will have a 
director of research. He will have a thorough 
knowledge of the opportunities for research 
in the government offices. The primary func- 
tion, therefore, of the director of research Avill 
be to open the door to those channels of new 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 107 

discovery and scientific suggestion which exist 
under government auspices. 

What is involved in this proposal may be 
gathered from a remarkable statement by 
President Hadley concerning research facil- 
ities now existing in the government depart- 
ments at Washington : President A. T. Hadley, 
Facilities for Study and Research in the 
Offices of the United States Government at 
Washington, p. 9. 

It would be time wasted to seek to demon- 
strate the research opportunities open in 
Washington. Professor Balfour, of Oxford 
University, declared: ^'There is no city in the 
world where scientific study can be pursued 
to so great advantage as in Washington.'^ In 
learning and enlightenment Washington will 
take the place which Paris has held. She will 
be what the Greeks called Athens, the omplia- 
loSy the world's center. 

It is easy to see a thing after it is done. 
Here the statesman is he who, like Francis 
Asbury, foreseeing the great future of this 
country, is wise enough to desire to preoccupy 
its most strategic points with centers of Chris- 
tian light, but in a larger day than that of the 
apostolic circuit rider shall not forget the na- 



108 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

tional capital, where in balance hang the issues 
of life and death for many peoples. The Ro- 
man Catholic Church, which so wisely, for 
her purposes, maintains in this country 321 
newspapers and public prints, counts it worth 
her supreme effort to build at Washington a 
great school of learning, which with vision 
she calls The Catholic University of America. 
And his Holiness, who has taken this univer- 
sity under his own special watch-care and for 
it cherishes unending solicitude, announces to 
the world that the institution is to be the chief 
training station of Catholicism for the western 
hemisphere. One is reminded even now of 
those earlier lines of the poet Wordsworth : 

The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff 

For occupation of a magic wand, 
And 'tis the Pope that wields it: whether rough 

Or smooth his front, our world is in his hand. 

At such a center as the national capital, 
therefore, none ought to feel that such direc- 
tion of effort as is contemplated by the Amer- 
ican University is unwise or ill advised. The 
research work of the Rockefeller Institute 
alone would demonstrate the wisdom of the 
initial part of the plan. But in Germany re- 
search work distinctively is carried on under 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 109 

the auspices of the universities. And there 
notably, while with us increasingly, there is 
a remarkable development in industrial re- 
search as a recognized function of universities 
and technical schools. 

Such an attempt upon our part, moreover, 
answers the desire recently expressed by the 
University of Pennsylvania to set apart cer- 
tain of her professors for purely research 
work. The kind of work which we have in 
mind has been done at the government depart- 
ments with high success by post-graduate stu- 
dents from West Point and the Naval Acad- 
emy. Students of the Catholic University of 
America at Washington now are putting to 
valuable use the same resources. Such an 
institute as we intend to operate can become 
an intermediary and intellectual clearing 
house between other American institutions of 
learning and the government offices. In time 
it could become a bureau of information for 
foreign scholars and institutions. As such the 
scope and value of its life would be measure- 
less. 

How clear the field is may be gathered from 
the fact that national legislation has provided 
for the free use by students of all that the gov- 



110 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

ernment has in the way of educational equip- 
ment. The expense of the adventure, there- 
fore, would be nominal. The institution, 
moreover, which puts into operation this plan 
will not be encroaching on the field or work 
of any other existing institution. For such 
an undertaking could be possible at no place 
but at Washington. The government collec- 
tions which have been gathered and massed 
at the national capital, by the very nature of 
the case, can have no duplicate. They must 
remain unique. 

Again, this is the accepted time. Events 
each day make more evident the growing feel- 
ing that the time has come when the educa- 
tional resources of the government at Wash- 
ington ought to be put to practical ends. We 
arrogate not to ourselves or to our enterprise 
that which is beyond our capabilities or our 
proper scope — none the less, we fully are 
minded now to make the high adventure, to 
break through the hedge, and to lay virile and 
quickening hands on these resources. 

What wealth of material, what matchless 
opportunities are ours ! Authorized and justi- 
fied by the spirit and the letter of two acts of 
Congress, one can say, "Here is the equipment 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 111 

of The American University. Here are our 
laboratories, our libraries, our museums, our 
experiment stations, our art galleries, our 
botanical gardens. They are ready and wait- 
ing. Have they not dignity and promise? 
Where on earth can they be surpassed?" 

The second step in the development of the 
life of the American University will consist 
in an attempt to assist in the vitalizing of 
truth that once has been discovered. This 
will be done by means of a system of lecture- 
ships. The dissemination of knowledge 
through lectures, as a defense for its dignity 
and value, does not need to cite the lectures 
of Plato in his garden or the discussions by 
Aristotle in the shady walks around the 
lyceum. Aberdeen University for four years 
existed on lectures alone. Illustration of the 
power that can be exercised through a wise 
system of lectures is found in the Bampton 
lectures in Oxford University. These dis- 
courses on theological and philosophical 
thought, made possible by the beneficence of 
John Bampton and delivered in Saint Mary^s, 
Oxford, where John Wesley preached, have 
had not a little to do with changing the course 
of higher thinking in the Anglo-Saxon world. 



112 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

Mark also the delightful labors of enlighten- 
ment revealed in the work of the Lowell Insti- 
tute of Boston. Whether it be the young poet, 
Noyes, picturing the sea in English poetry, or 
the learned Von Dobschtitz explaining the 
influence of the Bible on civilization, or that 
wizard of speech George Herbert Palmer dis- 
coursing on Edmund Spenser — tell me, is 
there any one element more distinctive and 
helpful in the higher education of the Amer- 
ican people than is provided by the choice 
spirits summoned to noble task and utterance 
through the call of the Lowell Institute? 

Exchange professorships and popular uni- 
versity extension lectures are assuming more 
and more an earnest and permanent char- 
acter. Institutions of learning are coming to 
feel that diversified series of attractive free 
lectures are a fitting part of university life as 
related to the community life of the people. 
No undertaking of any university in the 
country is attracting more widespread inter- 
est, perhaps, than are the jDicturesque but 
highly satisfactory traveling tent exhibitions 
and peripatetic platform demonstrations for 
instructing rural populations now being con- 
ducted by the University of Minnesota. Out 






\i 



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1 \ \ % ;^ K1 -1 ^VN^ ^% i ^ 



Hi 'J 

y 4 










LODESTAR AND COMPASS 113 

in his own State the farmers affectionately 
call the scheme ^'George Vincent's Circus." 
And when were farmers or farmers' boys ever 
backward about attending a circus? Such 
lectures as are proposed in the American Uni- 
versity need not necessarily be confined to 
Washington. Lecturers can be secured and 
sent to such points as will oft'er largest oppor- 
tunity and most fruitful field for the message. 
Such of the lectures as may deserve permanent 
form will be published. Thus, like the Bamp- 
ton lectures, these discussions can be made a 
continuous contribution by the university to 
the advancement of knowledge, and they will 
be conveyed through that channel which 
carries to the largest numbers and the most 
ready minds at the least possible cost. 

The third and final provision in the pro- 
posed inauguration of work by the American 
University will be an attempt to meet the de- 
mand for a higher development of individual- 
ism. This will be done through the mainten- 
ance of a comprehensive system of fellowships. 
On the nomination of other universities, col- 
leges, technical and professional schools, 
proper students will be selected and granted 
fellowships for study at agreed-upon univer- 



114 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

sities or places of investigation in America and 
abroad. The selection of these fellows and the 
academic oversight of their work will be lodged 
in a board of award of ten members, who 
will be given the right to employ for special 
needs the services of approved scholars. The 
university convocation day will be the set time 
for public functions in connection with the fel- 
lowships, and indeed for all public work in- 
volved by academic degrees or distinctions. 
These fellowships will provide for the pay- 
ment of satisfactory stipends to assist the stu- 
dents to unique opportunities for the devel- 
opment of themselves as instruments for the 
higher development of others. Fellows who 
have pursued satisfactory work will be invited 
to embody the results of their study in popular 
lectures to be delivered on the convocation day 
at Washington, or at such other places and 
times as the university may direct. Lectures 
which are deemed worthy will be published 
as a part of the permanent educational output 
of the institution. 

The fellowship provision will be found, at 
certain points, to coalesce with the research 
idea, since it will permit a wider distribution 
of research work than can be carried on at 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 115 

Wasliington, or, indeed, at any one given 
locality. It is interesting to see how the fel- 
lowship plan is beginning to ramify through- 
out the whole field of higher university work. 
The formulation of such a plan will be recalled 
as characterizing the initial efforts of our own 
Federal government for educating the Fili- 
pinos. In connection with a proposed ex- 
change of professors between South American 
institutions and Harvard, the republics of 
Chile and Uruguay are planning to send stu- 
dents as well to study at Cambridge, while 
Argentina proposes annually to send to the 
United States from 50 to 100 students of high 
grade to carry on post-graduate work in their 
varied fields. 

In making his presidential address to the 
Chemical Section of the British Association 
this year (September 15, 1913), Professor 
W. P. Wynne declared that "he who is able 
to convert education committees and private 
donors to the view that a far better return for 
the money can be assured if part of the large 
expenditure on scholarships for matriculated 
or non-matriculated students were diverted to 
post-graduate purposes, would have done a 
service to science and the state the value of 



116 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

which, in my opinion, cannot be overesti- 
mated." This advice is being followed by some 
of the women's colleges in England. Newn- 
ham College, Cambridge, for example, has been 
putting increasing stress on fellowship work, 
with the result that several brilliant young- 
women recently have been enabled to do work 
in which they have contributed vitally to the 
advancement of science. ( The Englishwoman, 
November, 1913. Women and Scientific Re- 
search, by E. Eleanor Field, p. 153-4.) 

The present activity of the Carnegie Institu- 
tion of Washington is an attempt at the de- 
velopment of the field of knowledge through 
the work of approved scholars who make re- 
searches and experiments or collect material 
for subsequent w^ork by other matured schol- 
ars. We, on the other hand, shall concentrate 
our efforts on the training of the human instru- 
ment itself. We shall do this through the 
molding of young men and women who as yet 
have not "arrived,'' to borrow the French 
phrase. May we not, therefore, be doing a 
more vital work than the Carnegie Institution 
in the degree that trained manhood and wo- 
manhood and potently developed youthful life 
transcend in importance for future usefulness 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 117 

the mere addition to the sum of human knowl- 
edge or the heaping up of material for future 
exploitation? The world moves by great per- 
sonalities. There is no substitute for the con- 
tagion of personality, and it is into the radiant 
arena of the possible achievement by person- 
alities brought to flower and fruitage through 
our efforts that we make our venture and take 
our chance. 

The Rhodes Scholarship plan is a most 
interesting contribution to the better good- 
fellowship of the English-speaking races. But 
Cecil Rhodes was an Englishman. Some very 
admirable and highly competent English- 
men are va little predisposed — dare we say 
it? — to be insular. They have such excel- 
lent and thoroughly satisfactory reasons for 
being insular in the glorious life history of 
their own ^^ tight little isle." None the less, 
insularity does interfere somewhat with that 
Welthlicky that world- vision, on which a very 
good friend of mine, Herr Hegel, was wont to 
insist as the prerequisite for a right under- 
standing. Was not Cecil Rhodes, the empire- 
builder, touched a little with insularity when 
he provided that his scholars must study at 
Oxford University alone? Who would utter 



118 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

other than reverence for Oxford University, 
that sweet mother nurturer of English culture 
— Alma Mater y fortunata, illuminata^ heata? 
But are there not other spots than Oxford 
where angels do come and minister unto men? 
Is it heresy to suggest that the Pane degli 
Angeli of Dante's dream may be distributed 
to even better advantage for mental assimila- 
tion and soul-quickening elsewhere than at 
Oxford if that venerable mother possesses only 
in mere fragments or possesses not at all, some 
particular portion of the bread of the angels 
which the heart doth covet? He who would 
know the science of the Romance languages 
wisely might prefer the Sorbonne even to the 
towers and halls which do hold such purple 
charm in the gloaming on the meadows of the 
Isis. For some reason best known to them- 
selves, have not medical men beaten a path to 
Vienna? Why should a young architect over- 
look the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris, or 
wherefore should a young engineer of any race 
neglect our own Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology? Out of what varied races have 
come the ardent souls who now recall the plain 
rooms and hard benches where in Jena, per- 
haps, or Leipsic, or beside the Spree, through 



LODESTAK AND COMPASS 119 

metaphysical mists more wonderful that any 
English fog, spirit spoke to spirit and the soul 
made answer and followed the gleam! The 
Oxonian John Wesley, desiring a change, went 
to Herrnhut and there found Zinzendorf. So, 
by extending the privileges of the fellowships 
of the American University to allow the fel- 
lows to pursue their studies at any university 
or in any place where the opportunities are 
greatest, may there not be accomplished work 
more significant for the future than can be 
done by any method which restricts the study 
to one university or one environment alone? 

The Chinese government saw great possibil- 
ities in the Boxer indemnity money which was 
returned to China by the United States. Act- 
ing under the best expert advice that the world 
affords, the Chinese authorities have devoted 
the income from the indemnity fund thus re- 
turned to the support of a national university 
fellowship system. By means of this fellow- 
ship system Chinamen of unusual promise are 
being sent each year to America to be educated 
at American colleges and universities. Bishop 
Lewis informs me that, through intelligent 
administration, the funds and the usefulness 
of this fellowship plan itself constantly are 



120 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

expanding. The plan is becoming of increas- 
ing leavening power to the whole Chinese 
nation. The last report of the indemnity uni- 
versity fellowship fund certainly is a com- 
manding proof that the Mongolian spirit is 
awake to the cumulative advantage which by 
this means Avill endow the Middle Kingdom 
more and more with a true Avorld vision and 
world feeling. 

To add one last personal note of interest to 
this picture, take, as a concrete illustration 
of the thought, the case of a young physician 
who for several years was on the staff of th^ 
Wuhu General Hospital in Wuhu, China, and 
who now is on the staff of the Harvard Med- 
ical School in Shanghai, China. During hi§ 
service in the Far East there has come to this 
earnest medical worker an insistent need for 
instruction in his special branch of research 
in parasitic diseases, especially the diseases 
incident to residence in that part of the Orient. 
But there are only two men who can furnish 
this physician what he requires. One man is 
in Europe, in London, at the School for the 
Study of Tropical Diseases; the other man is 
in the University of Illinois. Or, as a comple- 
ment to this case, take the experience of a 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 121 

young man who, after studying at Wesleyan 
University, had determined on a course of 
study Avhich must take him to the famous Dr._ 
Koch, in Berlin, Germany. It was a hard 
struggle to reach that goal, but the way was 
conquered. The young man gave himself to 
the opportunity. Personally I recall him now 
as I saw him in those student days in the Prus- 
sian capital, laboring as an unknown toiler 
with such devotion at his self-appointed task. 
But not in vain, for there that young man re- 
ceived the direction and impulse which later 
issued in a priceless service to the world 
through his discovery of the cause of the hook 
disease. As a friend and counselor suggests, 
^^How much simpler and better to seek out and 
find men like these and give them opportunity 
for study under those specialists in the whole 
wide world who can teach them Avhat they need 
to know, than to undertake the duplication of 
grounds, buildings, and faculties already in 
existence." 

Thus, in the American University, as now 
projected, we have a plan that is at once irenic 
and practical. It can be worked from the 
plant as now we have it. But far more vital 
than this is the fact that this proposition cov- 



122 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

ers the latest modern needs in life-training. 
We are not rash, therefore, we believe, in ex- 
pressing the hope that as this plan is consid- 
ered it will come to be accepted as the natural 
starting point for an undertaking in the higher 
life-training which can be made of far-reach- 
ing scope and importance. If there are ob- 
jections to the plan, let us not forget the old 
saying, "Nothing will ever be attempted if all 
possible objections must be first overcome.'' 
The late William Stead was appealing to all 
hearts when he said, "My idea is that every- 
thing wrong in the world is a divine call to 
use my life in righting it." Such a thought 
absorbed into the soul would find a holy and 
transforming use for criticism. It would 
change the critical attitude at its very source 
into a yearning to help. 

"Very good," says some one, "but some perti- 
nent questions will have to be answered. May 
not this plan be a plausible makeshift for 
simply opening the institution? Will not re- 
course be had later to the more commonly 
accepted and traditionally distinctive univer- 
sity faculty work? By and by will there not be 
founded an ordinary academic college? Thus 
competition, crowded out at the door, may 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 123 

climb in later at the window accompanied by 
seven more dreadful attendants?" In all 
frankness we answer that no action by the 
present board of trustees of the American Uni- 
versity can be made binding upon any subse- 
quent board of trustees. Only the provisions 
of the university charter granted by the United 
States government itself are immutable, save 
as changed by act of Congress. Moreover, who 
can forecast or foresee what a generation or 
two may bring forth of change in the life of 
any American school of high standing? Pro- 
fessor Bowne somewhat facetiously was ac- 
customed to say that we ourselves dwell in a 
constant razzle-dazzle in the life of the spirit. 
Things change rapidly in this land. The plan 
of Bishop Hurst, for example, only a quarter 
of a century ago, without question was the last 
word in higher education at that time. But 
within these twenty-five years the whole spirit 
of education and the emphasis of the educated 
life itself have shifted. And so the original 
plan of Bishop Hurst — let us be frank — is 
outgrown, and we are forced into a new ad- 
justment. This same process may be true con- 
cerning the working basis of our own present 
initial effort. Undoubtedly the present plan 



124 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

will require constant shifting and steady vital 
readjustments, but, notwithstanding all this, 
this plan, as now laid bare, hides nothing. In 
itself it is the whole enterprise so far as, with 
our present light, w^e are able to compass it. 
We do not intend to open an undergraduate 
college. We have no intention whatever to 
have recourse later to any hidden schemes 
which for the moment are held in the back- 
ground. On the contrary, we distinctly are of 
the opinion that this present plan in itself is 
an undertaking calling for all attention and 
effort. If worked unitedly by us all, it can be 
made a great achievement, not so much for the 
Methodist Episcopal Church as for the whole 
country, where now the battle of Protestant- 
ism and the Light again is being fought out 
for humanity. Only this time it must be 
fought to the finish. We can flee no further 
to escape it. 

The great thing, the truly momentous issue 
here involved, which does not, at the first cur- 
sory hearing, appear on the surface, is this: 
The provision which admits all other schools 
to all the benefits inuring from the undertak- 
ing of the American University itself is truly 
of far-reaching significance. If the provision 



LODESTAE AND COMPASS 125 

is correlated properly, if the work itself is car- 
ried out in a generous spirit of mutual con- 
sideration, if, for the sake of the larger hope, 
we will hold in abeyance some of our own 
questions, the enterprise can be made a natural 
working out to fitting conclusion of the theory 
of Christian education as understood and pro- 
pounded by the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
^'But,'' says Mr. Worldly-Wise-Man, "are 
you not overvaliant for the truth? Who will 
pay for all this? Whence will come the 
money?" The answer is that the financial 
plan under which now we are working is a 
proposition that the American University 
shall raise |1,500,000, in three units of |500,- 
000 each. The first unit of |500,000 when 
raised, shall be used for the opening of the 
institution. After the university has been 
opened, the general plan will be continued 
through the effort to complete the whole fund 
by raising the additional two units amounting 
to a million dollars. We have raised the first 
unit of 1500,000. Thus we hope to have in 
hand for our initial operations a working en- 
dowment fund of 1500,000 clear of all encum- 
brances. And this amount is the exact sum 
which by a bill now in Congress has been asked 



126 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

of the United States government as the pre- 
liminary foundation for establishing the pro- 
posed Federal University at Washington. 
Toward the subsequent additional million- 
dollar endowment fund which we propose, we 
already have subscriptions amounting to $200,- 
000, without mentioning certain other depend- 
ent funds. But, without thought of any fu- 
turities of asset, let there not be forgotten, in 
considering this project, that wise word of 
Professor Faulkner, "The history of educa- 
tion is the best commentary on the question of 
the sacred prophet, ^Who hath despised the day 
of small things?' " 

"But that Federal University proposition," 
says Mr. Faintheart, "is not that, after all, to 
be the effective stop to all your hopes and 
plans? What need will there be for the Amer- 
ican University when the great Federal Uni- 
versity at last is founded at the national cap- 
ital? Will not such a national school of learn- 
ing, supported by the Federal Government, 
render futile the hope of activity upon the part 
of such an institution as you are trying to 
establish? Would it not be wiser to sell to the 
promoters of the Federal enterprise your site 
and buildings and use the proceeds in some 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 127 

practical way for educational work or institu- 
tions already existing?" We shall enter upon 
no discussion of the proposed Federal Univer- 
sity. Such an institution may be founded; 
and again it may not be founded. We, like 
the hero of traditional fiction, have a heart 
prepared for any fate. Lest we may be charged 
with trifling, however, let it be said that the 
present proposed plan for the American Uni- 
versity has thoroughly in mind the possibility 
of a national university at the national capital. 
But this possibility of the future establish- 
ment at Washington of a Federal university 
only adds to the availability of our plan. In 
the event that a Federal institution is organ- 
ized, this plan assures such conditions that the 
existence of the American University will not 
be disturbed thereby. Rather will the call for 
its activity be the clearer and more insistent. 
For now mark clearly two consequences that 
would spring out of the existence, side by side, 
of the American University and the proposed 
Federal institution. The only changes neces- 
sitated in the scholastic life of the American 
University through the existence of its neigh- 
bor would be the shifting of the center of 
emphasis in the American University. Not 



128 LODESTAE AND COMPASS 

only would the American University be af- 
forded a heightened ability to accomplish its 
distinctive work through a proper affiliation 
with the Federal institution — some such role, 
perhaps, as is filled by Mansfield College at 
Oxford — but also it would have committed to 
it a new duty, a vast opportunity, unique and 
priceless. 

If the proposed Federal institution is 
founded, it will be weak and practically atro- 
phied at one point. By the nature of the case 
the Federal University must resemble in char- 
acter all of the similar American institutions 
supported by the State. One of the signifi- 
cant features in connection with our State 
universities is the need that is emerging for 
influences outside of the State university to 
supply to its students that religious instruc- 
tion and care which the institution itself does 
not offer. This condition is one of the crucial 
problems in our national life. More than one 
half of our Methodist students are in State- 
supported institutions, and the increase in the 
number of students thus situated is so rapid 
that at the present rate of increase it will be 
but a few years before the proportion will be 
three quarters. In meeting the problem of 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 129 

supplying religious care and instruction to its 
students, the Federal University would re- 
semble the State universities. Because of this 
fact, in the selfsame hour that recorded the 
foundation of a Federal university at Wash- 
ington there would be opened to the American 
University a great and effectual door of spir- 
itual usefulness. 

The devoted labors of the Christian workers 
who now at four State universities are push- 
ing a campaign of constantly growing effec- 
tiveness and triumph for their Lord is a sug- 
gestion of what is meant. These spiritual 
masters of men, at these most vital centers of 
life for all the States involved, are laying the 
sweet persuasions of the Christian Church, 
like the healing shadow of Peter, across the 
hearts of receptive multitudes. These are pro- 
phetic workers. They have caught the vision 
of a great opportunity for community centers 
bringing community leadership. They are 
holding open channels of supply of ministers 
for the altars of God. Through activities of 
like character with these so singularly blessed 
of the Master, the American University could 
become the pilot-flame of the spiritual life of 
the National University at the national cap- 



130 LODESTAE AND COMPASS 

ital. As such the American University would 
possess always a unique field of loftiest influ- 
ence. For to all our science there is a vital 
doctrine of final causes that "articulates us 
back from the halls of learning to the seething 
life of humanity." And there we could furnish 
a spiritual note to a materialistic time. 

The supreme culminating virtue, says the 
poet of the Faerie Queene, is the virtue of mag- 
nificence. To see large, to mark the end from 
the beginning, to behold the glory where others 
see only the mean or the commonplace — that 
is the culminating virtue of life. It is this 
virtue of magnificence that distinguishes, we 
believe, the American University. As yet her 
glory is the glory of the imperfect. But face 
to face with her opportunity, would it not be 
a sad thing indeed, would it not be evidence 
of dethronement from any right to divinely 
granted power, if this undertaking, freighted 
with such vicissitudes and also with such 
prayers, did not seek to have in its plans some 
fore-gleam at least of what the future may 
bring? This is an adventure not for a day. It 
claims the far-off increase of the years. Other 
men, other generations must have a part in 
molding this work, which we shall commit to 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 131 

their hands as only our beginning. Then, by 
the faith and vision of the fathers, by the toil 
and sacrifice that have been the hidden foun- 
dations of the present existence, by the assur- 
ance that comes from the consciousness of high 
purpose, let us build worthy of the early hopes., 
The supreme fact of a right direction at last is 
secure. Have no fear of the outcome. Here 
are involved elements and interests that will 
compel success. Only let us meet the divine 
testing as it was met by Seneca's pilot in the 
storm : "O Neptune ! you may save me if you 
will ; you may sink me if you will ; but, what- 
ever happens, I shall keep my rudder true !" 



WOEKING PLAN FOR THE AMERICAN 
UNIVERSITY 



Board of Award 

1. There shall be a Board of Award con- 
sisting of ten members. This Board shall have 
authority to employ the temporary services of 
approved scholars and advisers in order the 
better to fulfill the appointed functions of the 
Board. The Board shall order its own pro- 
cedure and meetings. 

2. The Board of Award shall be nominated, 
annually by the Chancellor subject to con- 
firmation by the Board of Trustees. 

3. The Board of Award, on nomination by 
some scientific school, college, or university, 
concurred in by the officers of the American 
University, shall select the Fellows of the 
American I'niversity. In fulfilling this duty 
the Board shall take into account the general 
qualifications of each candidate, his prepara- 
tion and health, his powers of leadership and 
promise of highest service, as well as his 
scholastic standing. The Board shall have 

132 




1 "^4 






■ ^^^rl ' «*, 



>li>s?^;;;j^jiLts/5=^/^4^. U}/fLk^'rLL^\,'.^^::^Mi^iii^t^i^ 



OLD FORT GAINES 
A Civil War defense of the National Capital on the grounds of the 
American University. 




VIEW FROM FORT GAINES 
Looking out over the grounds of the American University. 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 133 

authority to order such special examination 
of candidates for selection to Fellowships as 
it may prescribe. 

4. The Board of Award shall pass upon the 
qualifications of any student who is a candi- 
date for a degree from the American Univer- 
sity. The Board shall pass also upon any 
other proposed academic distinction that is tq 
be granted. 

II 

Institute of Research in Washington 

There shall be an Institute of Research in 
Washington. "Not to arrange so as to utilize 
to its highest efficiency the vast wealth of ma- 
terial for scientific research at Washington is 
nothing short of improvident and reckless 
waste of great opportunities." The pro]30sed 
Institute of Research, therefore, is "to make 
available for the advancement of knowledge 
the unparalleled facilities of Washington to 
graduate students.'' It will provide a general 
registry office for advanced students where 
they can register on coming to Washington 
and can receive advice and assistance as to the 
facilities open to them in the different depart- 
ments of the government. 



134 LODESTAE AND COMPASS 

The Institute shall be in charge of a Director 
who shall be nominated by the Chancellor sub- 
ject to confirmation by the Board of Trustees 
for a term of three years. The duties of the 
Director shall be to advise students in the util- 
ization of the facilities and materials for study 
and research in the various historical, liter- 
ary, scientific, artistic, and technological de- 
partments and collections of the United States 
Government as provided by acts of Congress 
of 1892 and March 3, 1901. He also shall 
familiarize himself with "all of the scientific 
possibilities of the various departments and 
bureaus and prepare announcements of the 
courses of instruction which may be given with 
descriptions of the material available for such 
courses." The Director also shall have gen- 
eral supervision of the Institute of Research 
and the development of the same. He shall be 
a member of the Board of Award. 

Ill 

University Lectures 

There shall be provided each year courses of 
lectures by eminent specialists. These lectur- 
ers shall be invited to discuss vital themes that 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 135 

will exercise the highest influence for scholar- 
ship and the advancement of human knowl- 
edge. Arrangements will be made with the 
lecturers whereby the University can publish 
such of these public dissertations as it may 
choose. All legal rights to the published lec- 
tures shall inhere in the University, thus as- 
suring an annual output for the University of 
real and permanent value. 

IV 

Students 

To be admitted to matriculation in the 
American University a student must have re- 
ceived a regular academic degree such as is 
conferred by colleges, universities, and scien- 
tific schools of recognized standing in this 
country. In the working plan of the Univer- 
sity, as at present provided, there shall be no 
charge to students except a matriculation fee 
and a diploma fee in the event that a degree is 
taken. 

V 

Fellowships 

In order the better to utilize the financial re- 
sources of the University for academic work 



136 LODESTAE AND COMPASS 

there shall be applied to the University funds 
the policy of distributed efficiency. This 
policy shall be put into operation through the 
medium of University Fellowships. 

So far as practicable such fellowships shall 
be established and supported from the Uni- 
versity funds. To students who thus are 
granted fellowships there will be opened at 
once the highest academic opportunities; for 
a fellowship will enable a student to pursue 
work at the institution and in the environment 
which for his purpose shall offer the largest 
possible advantages. 

1. Fellowships of Two Classes 

(a) Fellows who pursue their studies at 
seats of learning or at places of study and in- 
vestigation within the United States. A fel- 
low of Class A shall receive a stipend of |600 
per annum. 

(b) Fellows who pursue studies at foreign 
seats of learning or at places of study and 
investigation abroad. A fellow of Class B 
shall receive a stipend of |800 per annum. 

2. Admission to Fellowships 
Students shall be admitted to fellowships 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 137 

upon the nomination of the school, college, or 
university from which the candidate holds a 
baccalaureate or higher university degree. 
The nomination, however, is subject to con- 
firmation by the officers of the American Uni- 
versity and by the Board of Award as pro- 
vided in paragraph 3 of Section 1. 

3. Tenure of Fellowships 

Appointment to a fellowship shall be for 
one year, subject to renewal for a second year. 
In special cases a fellowship may be held for 
a third year, but no longer. The officers of the 
American University shall decide upon the 
length of the term of each fellow. 

4. The Work op a Fellow 

A fellow shall pursue study in such subject 
or subjects and at such seats of learning or at 
such places as shall be recommended by his 
nominating school, college, or university, sub- 
ject to the approval of the officers of the Amer- 
ican University. During the pursuit of such 
study the student shall be classified as a Fel- 
low of the American University, and he must 
make a semiannual report to the authorities 
of the American University concerning his 



138 LODESTAR AND COMPASS 

work. Where the study is made under the 
auspices of some other academic institution 
each report from the fellow shall be accom- 
panied by an official statement from that insti- 
tution. The second semiannual report must 
be in the hands of the officers of the American 
University thirty days before the date of the 
University Convocation. 

VI 

Degrees 

A candidate for a degree shall give evidence 
to the Board of Award that he is worthy of 
such degree. He shall present a thesis which 
shall be satisfactory to the Board of Award. 
This thesis, the University, in its discretion, 
shall have the right to publish. All legal 
ownership in the thesis shall inhere in the 
American University. 

VII 

University Convocation 

On the last Wednesday of each calendar 
month of May there shall be held a Convoca- 
tion of the American University. At this pub- 
lic function there shall be : 



LODESTAR AND COMPASS 139 

(a) A Convocation of the fellows of the 
American University. In this Convocation 
the fellows shall deliver addresses on sub- 
jects of importance worthy of publication. 
These addresses the University, in its discre- 
tion, shall have the right to publish. All legal 
ownership in each address shall inhere in the 
American University. 

(b) There shall be presented a Report from 
the Institute of Research by the Director giv- 
ing a statement of what has been done and 
what results have been accomplished which 
are of interest to the advancement of human 
knowledge. 

(c) There shall be conferred such degrees 
or such other academic distinctions as have 
been authorized by the Board of Award. 
There also shall be announced the appoint- 
ments to fellowships for the ensuing year. 



